Reflections of a Hierophant: Inception
The Hierophant reflects upon Christopher Nolan's "Inception"
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you cold invade anybody's dreams? Wondered what it would be like if you could steal their deepest, darkest secrets, without the knowledge of the dreamer? But, if you can steal their secrets, why couldn't you implant something into their mind? With relative ease, you could, theoretically, make or break anybody. That is what Christopher Nolan's uber successful "Inception" is, essentially, about.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a specialized spy of sorts, is a wanted man. His job consists of extracting very valuable information from the unconscious minds of his marks, while they dream. His status as an enemy of the very powerful organization, Cobol Engineering , as well as numerous others, has kept him from going home to his family. Not to mention, it has become increasingly difficult to accomplish any jobs when he unwittingly projects his dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), into the dreams, where she destroys any chance at a successful job. When he is offered the chance to regain his normal life, no longer on the run, he takes it. But the price is steep. He must complete a near impossible task: planting the idea to dissolve Maurice Fischer's (the late Pete Postlethwaite) company, into the subconscious of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), other wise known as Inception.
I was a bit leery of this film, when I first heard about it. First of all, the trailers really left too much to the imagination. It was almost like you only wanted to go see the movie just to find out what the Hell it's about. And, after I discovered the general plot to the story, my initial thought was, "Didn't 'The Matrix' do this already?" Don't get me wrong, I love Christopher Nolan, and I haven't seen a film of his I didn't like, but I just thought how unoriginal this seemed.
My curiosity got the best of me, in the end. I began doing research on "Inception," leading me to discover that Nolan worked on this film for 9 or 10 years, first pitching the idea to Warner Bros. in 2001. Nolan originally envisioned this film as a Horror movie, but settled upon a Heist movie, although he felt that typical Heist films are "deliberately superficial in emotional terms." He has cited movies like "The Matrix," "The Thirteenth Floor" (a severely underrated film), and "Dark City" as significant influences upon the idea of this movie. He was rejected by WB, and realized that he needed more experience with large-scale films. This is what lead him to "Batman Begins," and, eventually, "The Dark Knight."
Post "The Dark Knight," Nolan finally felt like he had the chops to make this movie, and set out to do so. He spent 6 months completing the script, after which he signed Leonardo DiCaprio in the starring role of the film, Dom Cobb. Leo and Chris spent months upon months discussing, in-depth, the script, and the story in general. When Nolan went to work rewriting the script, he made positive that the story was driven by Dom Cobb's emotional journey. Finally, in February of 2009, Warner Bros. purchased the spec script for "Inception." So, even though I was sure this film would blow, there was absolutely no way I would not see it.
But, alas, I still didn't think my curiosity justified the price of a movie ticket. So, I awaited the inevitable DVD release of "Inception." First off, let me just compliment the VFX of this movie. How very rarely do I see a movie where the VFX stun me, and leave me clueless. I had heard, from friends that saw it, that this movie was an VFX orgy. All I've got to say is that my friends had, apparently, never seen Roland Emerich's "The Day After Tomorrow." The VFX were, in my opinion, rather subtle. Nolan, the brilliant filmmaker that he is, knows better than to spend an entire budget on VFX. Rather, he focuses more on the story. Nolan deliberately kept the VFX to a minimum, something around 500 VFX Shots, which, if compared to typical VFX Epics (somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 VFX Shots), it is extremely imperceptible. The VFX were very impressive, particularly when Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is fighting off multiple Subconscious Security Guards in a Zero-Gravity hallway.
Even if this movie employed zero VFX, the film would still be great. All of that is due to the extraordinary actors that Christopher Nolan cast in his, in my opinion, his pièce de résistance. I've always rooted for the underdog, and that's exactly why I appreciate the casting choices so much. Leonardo DiCaprio has definitely come a long way from "Growing Pains." I believe the first film I saw him in was the terrible "Romeo and Juliet" film from 1996. I wasn't keen on that movie, and not overly impressed with Leo. That was until I discovered "This Boy's Life." Holy sh*t, Leo proved in that movie that he was here to stay. The only films of his I strongly dislike was "Romeo & Juliet" as stated above, and "Titanic." DiCaprio really brings Dom Cobb to life, and makes you really feel deep sympathy for his trials and tribulations that he constantly struggles with.
I really can't complete this review without mentioning my personal choice to portray The Joker, if Christopher Nolan chose to bring him back: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This kid was hilarious in "3rd Rock from the Sun," but it pales in comparison to his role as Roger in Disney's "Angels in the Outfield." Not only did he prove that he can be funny at any moment, but also pull at your heart strings with ease. Gordon-Levitt has been in numerous roles since his younger days, all of which were fantastic, particularly "Stop-Loss." He brings depth to Arthur, which is a supporting role. In most films, a supporting actor merely plays second fiddle to the main protagonist. But, with relative simplicity, Gordon-Levitt challenges DiCaprio for the role of most outstanding performance in this movie.
A lot of people are praising Tom Hardy for his role as Eames, the witty associate of Dobb's, who can change his form in the dream world to become anybody he needs to. In Robert Fischer's mind, Eames becomes Peter Browning (Tom Berenger), Robert's Godfather, and Maurice Fischer's right-hand man. This is done so that they can trick Robert Fischer into letting them gain entry into the safe in his mind, where they can plant the idea to dissolve his father's company. I'm not saying his performance was terrible, but he just didn't stand out in this movie, in my eyes. But, I haven't seen him in anything else other than this, so maybe the praise is well deserved from his other performances. One thing is for sure, we will definitely see a lot more of him in the next 2 years, due to his upcoming villainous role (in my opinion) in Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated "The Dark Knight Rises."
Ellen Page, who portrays the dream architect Ariadne, is a shining star, as always. Like most, I first saw Ellen Page in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand" as Kitty Pryde. Page didn't really become a blip on my radar until I saw her performance in "Hard Candy." Her performance in "Hard Candy" was chilling, to say the least. As Ariadne, she really pulls off being the surprise hero of the story. Even at the age of 23, Ellen Page shows the experience of someone who is a veteran in the acting game. Ellen Page makes you believe that Ariadne is genuinely worried about DiCaprio's Dom.
The only issue I can see with the casting for "Inception" is with the consistency of Christopher Nolan's choices for his movies. I'm not saying they aren't deserving, or that they aren't good actors. All I mean to say is that it is apparent that if Nolan finds an actor he likes, he sticks with them. The worry I have is that he is coming dangerously close to mirroring Tim Burton. It isn't a secret that Tim Burton is great friends with Johnny Depp. And I think that Tim Burton really feels that Johnny Depp is a natural fit for any role. Likewise, Christopher Nolan has cast Michael Caine in every movie since "Batman Begins." Michael Caine is a great actor, and, thus far, has given excellent performances in all of these movies (no matter how small the role was). I just wonder if Nolan will begin forcing Caine into just any role. The same can be said about his choice to cast Cillian Murphy in his movies. Murphy is not a bad actor, not by any stretch of the imagination. He has been in every movie of Nolan's since "Batman Begins," like Michael Caine. The exception, of course, being "The Prestige."
But the actors, and the SFX would have been nothing if the story wasn't so beautifully developed. Chris Nolan has technically been developing this story since he was sixteen years old. He was fascinated how, after awaking from a dream, he would fall into a lighter sleep, holding onto the awareness that he was dreaming, or a lucid dream. He became aware that he could change elements of his dream world, and attempted to do so. He worked this into his story, these characters having the ability to manipulate and manage a conscious dreams. The story really began to develop when Chris pondered what someone would do with the ability to enter someone's mind. Mr. Nolan thought, "Being able to extract information from somebody’s brain would be the obvious use of that because obviously any other system where it’s computers or physical media, whatever — things that exist outside the mind — they can all be stolen ... up until this point, or up until this movie I should say, the idea that you could actually steal something from somebody’s head was impossible. So that, to me, seemed a fascinating abuse or misuse of that kind of technology."
All I've got to say about that is that he was 100% correct. This movie went from being, in my mind, 100% unoriginal, to being, not only 100% unique, to being one of my favorite movies. Christopher Nolan can do no wrong, in my opinion. It seems that any film he touches is instantly great. The casting was fantastic, some of the best I've seen in years. I love the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to really be stepping out into his own. Leonardo DiCaprio is already well-established, but I'm positive that this won't be his masterpiece. He's going to have many more, greater, performances to come The story is one of the best that I've ever heard. It makes you wonder what you would do if you had the ability to enter someone's unconscious mind. Would you enter someone's mind to steal their secrets, or would your mission be for the pursuit of personal knowledge? Would you plant an idea into someone's mind that would destroy them, or one that would better them as a person?
Well, that's my reflection on Christopher Nolan's "Inception." I hope you enjoyed. Leave your feedback in the usual place, and, as always, take care, and I'll see you in the future...
JoshWilding
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