FOLIO
by Rick Grant
Filmmaker Christopher Nolan worked on this script for ten years. The result is a complicated scenario of mind-blowing situations and special effects, featuring a multi-layered story line. Basically, the story is about a team of industrial spies who developed technology to invade CEO’s dreams to steal their secrets. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DeCaprio) is the team leader.
The team is approached by an Asian billionaire, Saito (Ken Watanabe) who will pay a fortune to Cobb’s team if they can invade a rival, Robert Fischer, Jr’s. (Cillian Murphy) dreams and implant an idea so deep in his subconscious, he’ll think he came up with it. This new method is called inception.
Of course, the idea is a Trojan Horse and will be his downfall. Cobb knows about inception and has tested it. But it’s dangerous and the method is fraught with unknown dangers.
With Nolan’s sensational special effects and his multi-layered script, this movie is incredibly engaging. Viewers may not fully understand the complexity of the script, but they will talk about this film many days after seeing it. One thing to know, when the team is in a mark’s dreams, the world that they have created is full of projections that could be a problem.
To pull off his mission deep inside Fischer’s subconscious brain, Cobb recruits a new “architect”– a genius level architectural student, Ariane (Ellen Page) to join the team. She’s scary smart and catches on quickly. Her curiosity leads her inside Cobb’s troubled dream state where she learns his secrets, which could bleed into their dream invasion and sabotage the mission.
Cobb’s right hand man is Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who works various angles to coordinate the mission into a well timed operation. Cobb also recruits famous con-man and thief, Eames (Tom Hardy) and chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao). Saito insists on joining the team despite Cobb’s advice against it.
Nolan’s brilliant screenplay takes the viewers on a magical journey inside of Fischer’s various levels of consciousness. There, they encounter Fischer’s dream security team, projections implanted there to prevent his secrets from being stolen. It’s a projection army that harasses the team with small arms firepower, which Cobb never expected.
As the team goes deeper into the layers of Fischer’s unconscious, there are other unexpected surprises. At times, it’s difficult to figure out just what reality is being presented.
Nolan cleverly strings the viewers along with false leads and tangents to the main story as the layers of the dream assault fall in place. If the viewer has accepted Nolan’s premise that the team is operating deep inside Fischer’s subconscious dream state, then the zero gravity fights and the precise timing of the caper make perfect sense.
Nolan created vast dream worlds where, like in any dreams, strange things happen. These dream worlds can collapse if the team strays off course. However, viewers will enjoy the vast splendor of the Nolan’s surrealistic worlds.
As Cobb’s team ventures into uncharted dream layers, their resolve is tested. If they are killed in these deep layers they could be trapped in limbo and an artificial world for years. Cobb’s own dream reality bleeds into the team’s plans which threatens the mission.
Nolan’s complex, intricately woven script, (a masterpiece) special effects, and a stellar cast make this film the best movie of the summer. It’s one of the most original films ever to be released–on a par with Blade Runner and Apocalypse Now. It’s imaginative, engrossing, and thought provoking. In other words, it has the prerequisites to make it a great classic movie and a blockbuster as well.
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