I hope IB gets to see this...
Because I didn't really care for this movie.
I have been a big fan of Nolan for years, and I think that the idea of creating a "dream machine" is too absurd to make this a "Was this a dream or reality"? movie. To ask yourself at the end, was it a dream or reality--is asking the wrong question. What was the point of it? If you strip this movie down, it's a simple story about guilt and salvation, only we don't get to see the...ahem...INCEPTION...of where the relationship *began*. So...that leads me to think...this was a dream created by Dom (DiCaprio) because that's the only way this movie could work at all. Dream-stealing is an interesting concept. I think it's even possible to maybe "architect" a dream--but to share everything means everyone must be traveling on a direct line together. When things start to fall apart, they should be falling apart in other elements of the dream world, which doesn't seem to happen.
The movie is too neat, without enough stakes raised to make it compelling drama. We get a notion very early on that this will have a lot to do with DiCaprio trying to get over the guilt of what happened to his wife.
While the film creates its own logic and lives in it credibly (in that, no one is winking at the camera)--I think it takes itself too seriously. This is kind of a ridiculous idea. And I have many, many vivid dreams that I couldn't even begin to describe (except that one I had with Mike & Mike).
For a movie that is so convoluted and complex, when you break it down it's quite obvious and even silly. There are some really nice looking shots, and some extremely well executed action sequences (the hotel room scuffle, to me, surpassed "The Matrix" in utter badassery).
But the movie seems to be devoid of a soul that I think it needed in order to be believable. Whether it was a dream or not...I mean, I guess I could believe a reality like that? But it was so neatly put together, it just didn't make an impact on me.
out of
PS - I love what New York Magazine's David Edelstein wrote in his review - "I truly have no idea what so many people are raving about. It’s as if someone went into their heads while they were sleeping and planted the idea that Inception is a visionary masterpiece and—hold on … Whoa! I think I get it. The movie is a metaphor for the power of delusional hype—a metaphor for itself"
Bravo!