Directed by Christopher Nolan
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) specialises in stealing people’s secrets while they are asleep by inserting himself in their dreams. That is the premise of the latest film from the director of Momento, Insomnia, The Prestige and The Dark Knight who delves into the realms of memory manipulation. Christopher Nolan asks his audience to take a leap of faith and indulge in his multi-layered, existentialist film that has been described as ‘James Bond on acid’. This is a demanding and rewarding film because when you work out the rules of the dream world the characters inhabit, they change.
Like Cobb’s totemic spinning top, the levels of action seem to spin around at ferocious speeds. Dreams within dreams become dreams within dreams within dreams and the challenge is to figure out which level of reality you’re watching. Ariadne (Ellen Page), who was named after the Greek goddess that was mistress of the labyrinth, is the only female in the team that Cobb assembles to enter the dreams of corporate heir Fischer (Cillian Murphy) to plant an idea rather than steal one. When Cobb’s disturbing memories of his deceased wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) threaten the operation, Ariadne has to guide Cobb out of the maze as it collapses around him.
Cobb informs us, ‘If you’re going to perform inception, you need imagination’. The Matrix first let audiences into a computer-generated world that challenged the mind and Inception’s exhilarating visuals are so complex that you will want to see it more than once. Cobb’s companion-in-crime Eames (Tom Hardy) probably has the best line when he says, ‘You mustn’t be afraid to think a little bigger, darling’. But fellow dream-walker Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has the best scene as he fights off the baddies in zero-gravity. Do not miss seeing this film on the big screen.
Lezly Herbert
