To dream is perchance to see another Nolan blockbuster

Inception

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ellen Page
Now playing

Whether or not film projected onto a screen is the most tangible example of dreams illustrated in real life, the comparison shouldn't be considered too much of a stretch. For a director, in viewing his own work he literally finds himself in the theatre of the mind — his own mind or what he envisioned his picture to represent. For the Joel Schumachers and Michael Bays of Hollywood, these issues are nonexistent, but for Christoper Nolan, his infatuation with the mind has become so blatant, that the possibility of him being a tortured artist along the lines of Edgar Allan Poe seems increasingly likely.

Following the Dark Knight, which turned out to be not only a success at the box office but was critically acclaimed as well, Nolan offers a mostly new spin on themes he's previously visited — dreams and memory. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dominic Cobb, an "extractor" — someone who specializes in retrieving secrets from his targets minds — who exists in a unexplained near-future where minds are accessible to those who have the necessary skills and technology.

Cobb's sole desire is to see his children after being forced to flee the country after he's suspected of killing his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard). To return, he must make a deal with an Asian businessman (Ken Watanabe) to plant a false memory — the titular "inception" — in the mind of a young heir (Cillian Murphy) to an ambiguously evil global empire. Needless to say, things become far more complicated, as dreams become layered on top of other dreams, on top of other dreams, while space and time are toyed with to ridiculous and mostly captivating ends.

The fact that the audience knows nothing more than what Nolan intended illustrates how blatantly focused this film is. As an auteur, Nolan's style has always poured from every crevice of every shot, though sometimes at the expense of some of the actors. For example, the first 20 minutes of Inception are almost nauseatingly expository. Times where the plot takes a backseat to charming character moments, such as when co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Canadian sweetheart Ellen Page share a kiss to distract suspicious dream persons, demonstrate that it can be done well. But such scenes are too rarely used, sacrificed to more sequences involving car chases and explosions.

Ultimately, there's something very bittersweet about saying that Inception was, unsurprisingly, an exceptional and intelligent piece of increasingly precise filmmaking by Nolan, who wrote, produced, and directed the film. His usually creative mind lends itself to crafting stories on the screen, and he's at his most obsessive here. He weaves webs within webs of tangled plot lines, where thinking about things in a deeper sense becomes a literal metaphor for the whole viewing experience — perhaps a metaphor for the delicate interplay between actor and observer. But that seems almost unnecessarily philosophical for a film that remains a perfectly legitimate heist and action flick while at the same time remaining emotionally and intellectually deep.

For a more in-depth and spoiler-heavy discussion of Inception, check out this Friday's edition of V is For Validation, the Gateway's newest and sexiest film review podcast.