Big Screen Peter: Inception

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie. Check back next week for Peter’s review of “SALT,” a new espionage thriller starring Angelina Jolie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Liev Schreiber.

review by Peter Lewis

Often there is a deep chasm between how we appear to the outside world and what we are to ourselves. Not that this gap is unredeemable, no. It’s just that the two are often at odds. They don’t quite match-up. So, while there has been thousands of words printed in praise of “Inception” for its esoteric nature, for its mind blowing concepts of dreamscapes, for the novel approach of its story, deep down it is something different, something simple. Yet, we still end up lost in the folds of its giant flowing skirt. With our senses surrounded, we see only the dazzling fabric and miss the simple essence of the material: Inception is a heist picture.

It’s heady, sure, but it’s still a heist picture at heart and no amount of probing psychology can change that. Nor should anyone want it to, however. “Inception” is a brilliant piece of filmmaking, a stiff and refreshing wind in a desert of non-potable summer blockbusters.

For as convolutely intelligent as the movie appears, the plot structure is relatively straight forward. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a world class extractor, a special sort of corporate thief that enters a brain during its dream state to steal information. His excellence as a dream architect and extractor has, however, cost him dearly. As a fugitive from the United States, he is forced to live a fairly nomadic existence abroad and away from his beloved children. With the help of his aide-de-camp, Arthur (played by the excellent Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Cobb constructs one of those quintessential Hollywood rag-tag teams to pull off the biggest heist of all. And by doing so, the crew breaks the bank, but Cobb gets his desired freedom and a reunion with his children.

The aforementioned heist isn’t about taking something from someone’s brain, but implanting the most insidious of diseases, an idea, into it. The creators of “Inception” go to great pains to explain how this incredibly tricky procedure can theoretically be accomplished. Using the newly recruited dream architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), as a vehicle of explanation for the audience, the director serves up his explanation for how the crew will accomplish this — entering dreams within dreams within dreams — while simultaneously moving the plot forward. It is this slippery path of dream logic that will either elude or excite audience members. “Inception” will live in the memories of those who see it as either an excitingly complex thriller or overwrought and too complicated for its own good.

My own fence-riding take was somewhere between the two. While it seemed a bit overwrought at times, the conceit of the film is thrillingly novel. By creating these dream worlds, Christopher Nolan granted himself a conceptual freedom rarely known for a director. From crumbling cityscapes and snow covered fortress to zero gravity fight scenes and multiple scenes occurring on the same space-time continuum, “Inception” is titillatingly in its singular beauty.

What’s more, though it clunks along a time or two, the acting is generally superb. This level of excellence has come to be expected from DiCaprio (As has been previously noted in a review for Shutter Island, I have a high estimation of DiCaprio. I genuinely consider him to be the best actor to emerge since the debut of Daniel Day-Lewis). Fortunately, DiCaprio is supplemented with a strong supporting cast.

Beginning with his 2005 appearance in the stellar film, “Brick,” Gordon-Levitt has really come into his own as an actor. Marion Cotillard is frighteningly compelling as Cobb’s wife, Mal. Registering a deeply defining pathos unfelt since her role in the skewed comedic romance of “Love Me If You Dare.”

The only slightly false notes were played by Cillian Murphy as the target, Robert Fischer Jr., and Page as Ariadne. Both actors share a penchant for blankness. Their faces are such that they never really quite seem to comprehend the activity that takes place around them, forever retaining a calmness unknown to most. This is fine for a sarcastic fantasy like Juno, but it rings false in roles that require a broader range of physical reaction than placidness.

This slight issue aside, Inception is a transcendent film. Quite simply, it is a stunning achievement of vision and execution, qualities rarely witnessed in summer blockbusters.

• Inception is playing at the Carmike 14 and the Malco Cinema 12 in Fort Smith, and the Malco Van Buren Cinema. Link here for time and ticket info.

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