Inception – Can Chris Nolan’s film hold all its massive dream ideas?

It took Christopher Nolan eight years to write Inception, cryptically describing it as a contemporary sci-fi action thriller “set within the architecture of the mind.” Nolan does big – really big – films, but there’s something slightly impersonal about Inception, which is full of ideas and some great moments, but never quite fits together in a satisfactory way. It is complicated, technically dazzling, looks amazing and features great performances, but is almost equally pretentious, overlong, baggy and sometimes plain dull. Compared to the usual summer blockbusters it’s great to get your teeth into something so huge, but it’s ultimately a triumph of style over substance.

Describing the plot could take as long as watching the film, but actually at its heart is pretty simple. Maurice Fischer (Postlethwaite) is a Rupert Murdoch-like media owner on his deathbed. He is going to donate his empire to his son Robert (Murphy), but rival Saito (Watanabe) wants the empire broken up, and wants Robert to do it willingly. The only way that will happen is to get inside Robert’s head and implant the idea in the form of a dream – enter Cobb (DiCaprio) and his team. Cobb has devised a method of invading people’s minds to find their subconscious secrets, called inception.

He agrees to do the job, reasoning that if he pulls it off he will be finally able to clear his own mental demons that keep plaguing him – he is keeping alive his dead wife in his dreams, which keep invading his work. If he can finally lay her memory to rest he will be able to face his kids again. So to accomplish the job he assembles a crack team consisting of Arthur (Gordon-Levitt), Ariadne (Page), Eames (Hardy) and Yusuf (Rao). They have exactly 10 hours to get inside Robert’s head on the flight to Australia to get the job done – the problem is Cobb’s subconscious keeps popping up, and he also discovers he will have to go three layers into Robert’s head to come out alive.

Dreams within dreams within dreams – oh blimey does it get complicated. Cobb explains at the beginning that when you’re in a dream everything seems real, and the special effects boys have a whale of a time making that come true. Paris streets bend round, hotel lifts become gravity-free zones, water bends in a glass, even entire cities appear with no people inside the buildings. As visually stunning as this is though, it’s still the story and the characters which drive it, and Inception falls down a little here. Cobb’s team are merely ciphers, having no inner life of their own – Arthur and Ariadne do share a brief kiss but it’s very chaste. Neither do we care very much about Fischer’s will and testament, which is the film’s Maguffin, but it’s a flimsy idea to hang a movie on. It’s also worth noting that the film contains no jokes or humour – Nolan simply doesn’t do funny.

All is saved however by the film’s real idea, Cobb wrestling with his subconscious about whether to keep his wife alive, even if it is only in dreams. DiCaprio and Cotillard share several haunting, affecting scenes where he is clearly disturbed at her presence yet tempted to keep the illusion going, as he misses her so much. A scene where we see her ‘suicide’ is as affecting as it is confusing, and that’s saying something.

The performances here are absolutely exemplary, led by DiCaprio’s tortured, frenzied Cobb. Even when we are in dream-within-a-dream territory – and sometimes it’s exhausting just keeping up with the various levels – DiCaprio is there with a frown and a line to help us out. Cotillard is equally strong as his vision – literally – of a wife, and the supporting cast are all on great form, even if they are just given some plot to explain. Ellen Page in particular has a role requires her to explain what she’s doing without her having much idea of what exactly that is, but she is an actress of such skill that she manages to pull it off.

Inception is the product of Christopher Nolan’s mind, which is clearly full of big ideas. Ultimately though the movie comes across as a bigger-budget Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind mixed with a bit of Memento, with lots of special effects thrown at the screen. Most of the budget is up there on the screen, but sometimes it might have been better to tone things down a little and focus a bit more on character rather than set pieces. A sequence towards the end in a snow station looks more like a calling card for a Bond director than a scene from Inception, and the opening sequence goes on way too long.

Ultimately though you have to applaud Nolan for the sheer bravado with which he throws ideas and images at the screen. Even if he doesn’t fully succeed, he still creates a fascinating movie, and you can’t say that about many British directors – and if you can see it at an IMAX screen you really should, it looks amazing.

Overall verdict: Visually dazzling, complex, labyrinthine look inside a man’s subconscious, which has more ideas than it knows what to do with but still weaves an amazing pattern and grips for most of its long running time.

Reviewer: Mike Martin