INCEPTION (2010)  Movie Review

Inception, released on June 16, is a story the infectious power of an idea and the extent one would go with such an idea in his/her head. It also addresses the importance of confronting one’s feelings of guilt. Because f not, it can consume you and affect everyone around you.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, the master of dream extracting. An extractor’s job is to infiltrate a target’s dream (where their minds are at their most vulnerable) and steal their secrets. However, he is suddenly approach with a new challenge to plant information, inception, instead of steal information. The challenge is to plant the idea so subtly that the target believes it to be original. He forms a team of six people and plans an elaborate scheme to make the inception work.

They construct three levels of dreams:
1) the city
2) a hotel
3) a secure compound in the snowy mountains.

However, as the mission progresses, Cobb allows the guilt of his personal life affect his work. His late wife appears to him in his dreams sabotaging his work, and it spirals out of control. The only way to stop her interference is to confront her in Limbo and eradicate his guilt. He allows his guilt to control him so badly that he cannot even know about the architecture of the dreams, because it would allow Mal to sabotage the mission.

One of the remarkable twists of this film is the subtle line between the dreams and their reality. They must use a totem, in Cobb’s case a spinning top. Every time he needs to confirmation of whether he awake or dreaming, he spins the top. If the top falls, he’s awake. It’s important to watch for the top as the film progresses.

This is an excellent, thought provoking must-see of the summer. It keeps you on the edge of your seat while juggling four levels of dreams simultaneously and a brilliant ending that will leaving you wondering. Where did Cobb end up?