Two months have passed with no movie reviews. What better way to start back again than presenting you with a movie that I feel is probably the best movie I have seen in a long time.
I have always been fascinated by the dream world and really enjoyed how director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, The Prestige) created it for this movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Tom Cobb, a man who specializes in entering people’s dreams and stealing information from their minds. It’s called Inception and Cobb is the best in his field. But a tragedy has kept him from being as good as he once was and he fails to deliver on his current job.
To avoid being “fired,” Cobb decides to disappear for awhile, but is convinced by a wealthy Ken Watanabe (Saito) to do one more job. Saito promises Cobb that once the job is complete, he will have the murder charges, of which Cobb insists he’s been wrongfully accused, dropped, and he will be able to enter the U.S. again and see his children. Cobb agrees and assembles a team to aid him with the tricky procedure.
But Cobb’s secrets are starting to get the best of him and he risks the lives of his team members as well as his own sanity.
The ensemble cast is incredible. DiCaprio is always good in my book and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is equally as good as his partner Arthur. Ellen Page, who plays Ariadne, an architect student, has a natural ability to mold into any character and holds her own with DiCaprio and Gordon-Levitt. Tom Hardy adds a nice charm as Eames, another team member and Cillian Murphy is fine as Robert Fisher Jr., the man who’s mind the team enters. Marion Cotillard is chilling as Cobb’s deceased wife who won’t leave his dreams.
Nolan’s visions of the dream world are awe-inspiring from the scenes where Page first enters the dream world and proceeds to create the architecture for the job to the mesmerizing end scenes where the dream world is tumbling round and round.
The suspense and action are great and there were many moments where I gasped and was literally on the edge of my seat clenching my fingers into my husband’s arm.
I went into this movie, feeling a little worried, like it might be too complicated and I wouldn’t be able to follow what was going on. But Nolan has a great way of explaining everything along the way and you get a sense that all this could be real. Maybe so much that you wonder if you are in a dream or not! ;)
The ending is probably my favorite part! You will see why, if you go see it. And trust me, you should!
Stars *****
July 26, 2010 at 7:33 PM
It's no G.W. Clift review...that is to say, I actually enjoyed it. Great review!