Paul Hopkins

Having seen Memento, The Prestige & both batman films, I have consistently been immensely impressed with Christopher Nolan’s film making skills, even with a comic book film in The Dark Knight he produced not just one of the best comic book movies I’ve seen but a top notch movie which stands alone. So when I first heard about his new project I couldn’t wait to see what he would produce this time.

As I heard the cast list slowly announced, my excitement grew as you realized this could be something special (or at least hoped it could be), quality was just oozing from it in all directions. However it’s all to easy to build your expectations too high and then be immensely disappointed with the end result, as I have done once before. So in order to try and avoid doing this I managed to avoid all reviews and comments about what the film was really about, except the very basics that I will share with you later and just caught the trailer. However, as I entered the cinema to see Inception I couldn’t help but feel a little excited, fingers crossed then that it’s good!

Well no it’s not good …….. it’s exceptional! What Christopher Nolan has again produced is an exciting & intelligent thriller of the highest standard. He has pulled together some stunning effects, a great soundtrack, a brilliant cast and most importantly a fantastic story to produce a film that is definitely the best thing I’ve seen so far this year.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief, but not your usual kind of thief, he is able to steal you deepest, most valuable secrets from you as you sleep. He is able to extract that information from people as the mind is most vulnerable when your dreaming, he enters the subjects dreams and steals the information. Cobb uses his ability to steal in the world of big businesses and corporate espionage. Due to his work he can no longer return home as he is on the run, however when one man offers him the chance to return home for one final job he jumps at the chance. This job is a little different from the others because instead of stealing an idea he must plant one, the process know as Inception….

I’ll leave the set up there, that is all you need to know. I’ll just give you a few thoughts on the film then, without trying to give too much away.

The cast is, as you would expect, great. I don’t really want to single anyone out because it’s an ensemble piece, but you’d have to say Leonardo DiCaprio shows again that he can put in a performance of quality. Cobb’s team of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Ariadne (Ellen Page), Eames (Tom Hardy), Saito (Ken Watanabe) and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) all put in solid performances and support DiCaprio well and Marion Cotillard is also stunning as Cobb’s wife.

What Nolan does so well is he never overdoes everything, yes there are some fantastic effects but they are not over used and they are done so well because there is a point to them. Too many films have wacky and weird effects which are badly done and because they serve no real purpose they are even more out of place. Nothing in this film jars, it’s there for a reason. The soundtrack adds to the tense conclusion, the film moves at a pretty fast paced but it doesn’t feel rushed, it feels deliberate from the very first scene to the concluding shot everything helps the film along. I can’t believe it’s 2 hrs 20 mins long because it just never seems to drag, there was no break to take a breath. Without spoiling the end too much it’s great, it what makes me love Nolan films and it lead one fellow cinema goer to jokingly shout ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen, even the grazing of popcorn by other people or the talking by the middle aged lady behind me (who should know better) couldn’t distract me from the spectacle of it all, I was totally involved.

If you have seen a Nolan film before you’ll know what to expect, if you haven’t well here’s something you have to remember, you have to concentrate! With more twist and turns the a country road this movie keeps you thinking, It’s not difficult to follow but you will leave the cinema with unanswered questions, you’ll keep running things through your head and thinking of new questions. Nolan keeps the viewer on their toes and keeps you thinking. I can think of one or two minor gripes with the plot but these are minor and there aren’t the usual glaringly obvious plot holes that you usually get when movies try and get clever. Will Inception be for everyone, No it won’t, if you like your movies to wash over you and not do much then you’ll probably not find it that interesting. Me, well I love this kind of stuff, this is what I go to the cinema for, to be entertained but also to be challenged. I rarely give a film a 10 out 10 but if any film is going to get one then this surely deserves it. Bravo Nolan an outstanding film and an absolute must see!

More information at IMDB