Cobb (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are very good at what they do and believe me what they do is a long shot from a walk in the park. Cobb and Arthur have mastered the technology to enter other people's minds and partake in their dreams. In this profession, they create a dream for the victim and then enter said victim's dream and try to find information for themselves or for the clients that hired them. Quickly after the film gets started, Cobb and Arthur are approached by a man named Saito (Ken Watanabe) who has been observing the two men's skills. Saito has a job for Cobb and Andrew and it includes something that is considered impossible. The thing which I speak of is known as inception which is where those who invade the dream attempt to place an idea in the victim's mind. Saito owns a buisness that is threatened by a rival buisness. The head of said business is about to hand over the company to his son, Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy). What Saito wants is to plant the idea in Robert to break away from his father's company and start his own buisness thus dismanteling his father's empire. Saito not only offers money but tells Cobb that he will grant him a way to finally go home, something that Cobb has wanted for a long time. Why can't Cobb go home? That's one of the many mysteries.
The two, even though Cobb made the decision without Arthur's input, take the job and assemble a team of other's who are skilled in the art of invading dreams. The team includes Ariadne (Ellen Page) who is responsible for constructing the dreams that the team goes into, Eames (Tom Hardy) who has the skill of taking of the shape of those known by the victim of the dream in order to more easily convince the victim of telling secrets, and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) who makes liquids that enable people to sleep longer and/or become more relaxed. This team attempts to target Robert Fischer Jr. with the goal of convincing him to break away from his father's business.
When looking at "Inception" it is much like looking at pieces of a puzzle. There are many pieces of the puzzle that include the acting, the script, the cinematography, the music, the story, the originality, the visual effects, etc. The bottom line is, "Inception" has all of the puzzle pieces and they all fit together perfectly. Now let's look at each piece.
Starting with the acting, it is very noticeable in the trailers that "Inception" is filled with A-listers and I don't mean just the popular A-listers (Megan Fox) I mean the A-listers who are both popular and can actually act (not Megan Fox.) The acting for all cast members is impressive, the best performance coming from the very talented Leo Dicaprio who has shown outstanding acting in both of his films the year (the first being "Shutter Island").
The next big factor of "Inception" is the plot. Every now and then there are movies that you see that after watching you say, "Wow! I have never seen anything like that!" (think The Matrix or The Lord of the Rings). Inception is the perfect example of that kind of film. The story is so interesting, so gripping, and so original, I was struck with awe at how brilliant the film was because of this. Now one thing I feared when going into this film was that I would be confused and lost a lot. WRONG! Thanks to the brilliance of Christopher Nolan, the story, the whole concept of going into dreams, and all points of the story are clearly explained leaving no questions.
As for the rest of the puzzle pieces, there is a big list but some of the key ones include the cinematography, CGI, and score. Like most Nolan films, the camera-work is outstanding. The lighting and clearness gave the film a beautiful picture. Since "Inception" dealt with dream sequences, there were many different angles that the camera's were placed in and all in all, the way those scenes turn out is visually impressive.
The cinematography combined with the CGI was a great mix. Slow-motion is a much-used effect in "Inception" but thankfully it wasn't overused like it is in many action films (Mission Impossible 2). One scene features the team falling backwards into a lake while strapped into a van. In this scene, the way everyone moves, the way the camera looks, the way the van crashes into the water, everything just works perfectly. This scene is just a fraction of what "Inception" has to offer.
One of my favorite things to look for in a movie is a great score and I couldn't have been more excited when I saw that Academy Award winning composer Hans Zimmer (composer of "Pirates of the Caribbean", the "Batman" films, and "Sherlock Holmes") was attached to this film. Zimmer is very good at composing intense scores and he does it once again in "Inception." The music fits perfectly with all of the intensity, suspense, and emotion of the film.
I could go on and on about how fantastic this masterpiece is. "Inception" was a brilliant puzzle made up of important pieces that fit together and it is, what Mary Poppins would say, "Practically perfect in every way!" Inception is a great film and quite possibly one of the best films I have ever seen. I give it four stars out of four.
"Inception" has a running time of two hours and twenty eight minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.
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