Review: Inception

Review: Inception

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

Some movies beg to be viewed twice: Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense come to mind. What we thought had unfolded as we watched these films, in the end, was very different from what had really happened. We watched again to notice the clues we missed the first time around. We watched again to make sense of the world contained in the space of a movie.

Inception seems to be such a movie. I indeed do want to see it again to try to make sense of it all, to notice the clues. My grandson Max and I had an intense discussion after we saw the film. We tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure it out. We sorted out most of the plot, but there were still too many questions and loose ends. We consulted the myriad of Internet discussions of the film and discovered that our read of the plot was in line with the online explanations. Most of those loose ends, however, just weren't tied off.

Now, I have no problem living with ambiguity in a movie, but there's a fine line between creative ambiguity and sloppy storytelling -- and I'm afraid there's a bit of the latter in this film. I wouldn't lodge that complaint against Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense. Second viewings of those films elucidated much tighter plots with no troubling loose ends.

Nevertheless, do see Inception. Movies have been so disappointing this summer. It's a relief to have one to recommend. Fine performances abound: Leonardo DiCaprio (Dom Cobb), Ellen Page (Ariadne), Joseph "I-hope-we-see-more-of-him" Gordon-Leavitt (Arthur), Tom Hardy (Eames), and the always reliable Michael Caine (Miles). DiCaprio plays a dream thief, skilled at stealing corporate secrets. His latest assignment is not to steal an idea, however, but to plant one in the brain of the rival of a corporate client: to complete a heretofore impossible inception.

The special effects in the movie dreams are not always as dream-like as one would expect. The most stunning scene actually appears over and over in the trailers: the streets of Paris fold over themselves in delightful fashion. My favorite dream movie, however, is still Peter Weir's The Last Wave.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it