The unfathomable chaos becomes intolerable.
"Inception" is not merely a bad movie; it's an enormous insult to the audience.
Christopher Nolan has conjured an intriguing premise which he then wraps in
millions of dollars worth of production money before throwing an impossible
challenge at all of us: "See if you can keep up with this one!" Consider the
premise.
The field of
Extraction has been discovered. Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, the extractor. He
intrigues us with the theory that it is now possible to steal an idea from
someone's mind. In fact, he has done it. Now he suggests that if an idea can be
so stolen, why is it not possible to plant one in an unsuspecting mind? Ideas
will be stolen or planted while the subject is dreaming. For those of us who
have always loved the certainty that no one can read our minds, this has the
promise of a great story. But that promise is immediately annihilated by the
opening scenes that bombard us with violence and confusion. If we listen very
closely, we learn the plot involves something about a corporation, the CEO, his
heir, and the combination to the safe that holds the rich man's will. But these
essentials are buried in an explosion of noise.
Because Cobb
blew it last time around, a new architect must be found to design the dreams for
the subjects after they are put to sleep. This would be Ellen Page as Ariadne
who will talk to the subconscious of the subjects on a deeper dream level than
usual. With understandable hesitation, she takes the job "because it's pure
creation."
We visit a
chemist's underground dream lab ("Come, I'll show you.) where the chemist will
develop a sedative powerful enough to sustain three layers of dreaming. We
travel to the Alps where white suited people are tossed about by an avalanche.
We visit Tokyo and New York where landscapes become dreamscapes that fold
physically in on themselves. That's quite fun to watch for a few minutes. While
the screen is awash in car chases, fireballs, eruptions, gunfire, and the
swashing of knives into flesh, remember that this is ok because, if you're
lucky, it will probably be a dream. After two hours and thirty-six minutes the
unfathomable chaos becomes intolerable.
Mr. Nolan has
hired expensive talent (DiCaprio, Page, and Marion Cotillard) and spent millions
on special effects and stunts, making it ever more dismal that he never allows
the audience to fit the pieces of his puzzle together. He never clarifies the
connections between places and people that would allow us to have a good time in
the maze. As the interminable ordeal finally winds down, we are wondering simply
who will be left alive at the end. Who will wake up from which dream? Once again
a movie becomes a canvas for special effects at the expense of story. This ranks
as the longest bad movie made by talented people that I have seen in years.
Copyright (c) Illusion