Inception (2010)

Christopher Nolan is one of the most creative and successful of our current crop of blockbuster filmmakers, and his first film post The Dark Knight certainly meets both those standards. Inception posits a roughly contemporary world in which corporate espionage is conducted largely in the minds of business men, literally. Leonardo DiCaprio is Don Cobb, a man particularly skilled at such ventures, only he caries with him a particular liability for a man who hops into the subconscious of others, deep guilt over his wife's tragic death.

Given that the movie takes place mostly inside peoples dreams, and that there are even dreams within dreams, I was particularly on the lookout for the films twist or catch throughout, and perhaps that's one of the reasons that I never felt fully invested in the proceedings. Inception wasn't the 'blow your mind film' that I gather it was for many, I don't think it even had anything really deep to say. It does however work as pretty decent, and visually interesting, action thriller. I was particularly impressed with the films pacing, it didn't feel like it was 2 1/2 hours long, and now that I think about it that seems to be a hallmark of Nolan's films, they play shorter then they are.

Inceptions creative, its got a good cast, and keeps you involved as it runs at a steady clip. But its not amazing, and I think even Nolan gave up on its coherency at a certain point. Perhaps the element of the film that most amused me was the use of the Edith Piaf song La Vie en rose, as one of the triggers to alert the dream raiders that it was nearly time for there target to wake up. As one of the films major stars, Marion Cotillard, had won an Oscar for playing Ms. Piaf in a film, perhaps that was a totem from the director to remind us that its all just a movie. Grade: B