Christopher Nolan's "Inception": A Review

Essay by Brennen Wulfert (LHS Class of 2011)
 
Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster, Inception, has been met with prevalent positive reviews. It would, however, seem that Mr. Tom Bachtell of The New Yorker doesn’t quite follow this party of praise. This essay responds to his critiques. Is the film really just a glitzy, soulless machine charging through with an exterior brilliant enough to capture the adoration of whomever may see it? Well, the answer is yes and no, really.

To begin, I will look at the film at face value. By this, I mean we’re going to look at the very apparent storyline of Cobb trying to perform “inception” (placing an idea in someone’s subconscious) upon Robert Fisher with the help of his team in order to have his name cleared. I would have to agree with Bachtell that the very rules of entering and performing inception are so confusing that Nolan had to devote several pages of dialogue just to get the viewer to understand it. If you are going to go through the trouble of coming up with such confounding sets of restrictions for your dream world, you should at least make sure that all of that trouble wasn’t in vain by seeing that your audience understands and accepts them as well as you and the characters do.

But this face value plot line isn’t disappointing. It delivers by giving us a story that resolves itself out without giving away all of its secrets. Some may called it an easy write-off, and that the screenwriter just got lazy toward the end, and the result is an open ending that could be interpreted in different ways. I say that’s exactly what it is, and exactly what it needs to be. Think about any story and you’ll realize that some of the greatest stories are that way. Writers realize that just as everyone sees characters and settings differently in their own versions of the worlds within a story, they do the same by interpreting what happens to a character at the end of a story. If you think about it, a truly disappointing ending is one that just drops it right in front of you and says “Look here! That’s all she wrote, folks.” Where’s the imagination in that?

So this brings us to the sub-plot, the story between Cobb and his dead wife. She is a ghost that haunts Cobb’s soul, and by going down to the very essence of who he is, deep within the lowest of levels within his mind, he is able to meet his long lost wife yet again. You can’t help but feel sorry for him, not just because of the fact that he lost his wife, but because he can’t let go of her. Unfortunately, much of the potential emotion was forgone in order to achieve the mainstream popularity that did nothing in making Inception the potential classic that it could have been.

With a film like this, that seems like Nolan was truly trying to craft a sort of hybrid, a marriage, albeit a dysfunctional one, of psychological thriller and flat out, on the edge of your seat action. Don’t insult the intelligence of the more studious members of the crowd by throwing in some lackluster action in the midst of some well-written and engaging dialogue. And don’t bore the action junkies with confusing and vague themes that are there to create the pseudo-dream atmosphere. In other words, create the movie like it’s supposed to be. Give all of us some equal playing ground, a sort of nice middle ground that allows us all to come together to appreciate the movie for what it is, not what it could have been.

Now, all of this aside, I really did like the film. The movie had the ability to take me from that nasty, gum and soda stained theatre chair to the world of Cobb and his team as they traversed the dreamscape and ultimately told a very intelligent and original story. If for nothing else, you must give credit to Nolan for creating an original screen play in the “remake and reimagining” era of Hollywood where if you aren’t rehashing pre-made scripts or writing out an unnecessary and soulless sequel, then you are pretty much guaranteed either a short life in a few select theatres or maybe a good run the film festival circuit. He took a truly original idea and made a great movie out of it. Sure, it may not be the “perfect” movie, but then again, define for me just exactly what a “perfect” movie is. What are the standards?

Questions for Further Writing:
What did you think of Inception? Was it all that Brennen is making it out to be?

What do you think about Brennen’s idea of an open-ended conclusion to the film? Does that increase your level of engagement in a film, or do you find that it frustrates you when you experience it in a movie?

What are some other recent films that deserve some attention in the LHS Success? Why?