Posts tagged leonardo dicaprio

Inception (2010) D: Christopher Nolan S: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page As was my wont in most screenings I had gone to, I walked into Inception carrying four fingers of Kit Kat and a tetra pack of Chuckie. In each of the past screenings where I brought them in lieu of the more common popcorn and soft drink tandem, I ended up consuming them less than fifteen minutes into the film. Inception ran for 148 minutes, and within that relatively long period neither taking a break with my chocolate-covered cream-filled wafers nor taking a choco-bursting sip of my chocolate drink crossed my mind. In retrospect, how could either act possible have done so? When your mind is being messed with by an unusually mind-bending film, there’s no room for such delicious chocolatey prospects. Inception is that rare film which makes even the most dedicated chocolate fiend forget about his sweet tooth even when a couple of chocolate snack items are within his reach while watching it. In other words, Inception is so damn good. Now that my weak, but sensible, attempts at chocolate metaphors are thankfully done and over with, allow me to try a different sort and then elucidate: Inception is a matryoshka doll of a film, its primary conceit being one which evokes the Edgar Allan Poe poem, A Dream Within A Dream. Most of the scenes in the film take place, as one of its several taglines declares, in “the architecture of the mind,” and its protagonist, Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo Caprio with echoes of his tormented character in Shutter Island), must take advantage of this architecture, to wit, the very nature and design of dreams, to accomplish with a special team of “dream invaders” his eponymous mission: to implant a critical idea into a person’s subconscious—or more specifically, sub-sub-subconscious. Admittedly, this concept of multi-layered communal dreaming, not without its own set of rules, may be difficult to follow at first, giving rise to apparent plot inconsistencies, but for the attentive and perceptive viewer the rewards are extremely gratifying. Like a well-crafted nesting doll, Inception is a creation in which surprises abound. Almost every twist and turn of Inception is fueled by references to Jorge Luis Borges’s works. The main setting itself, the universe of dreams and their labyrinthine confines (indeed, as writer and director Christopher Nolan named the “dream architect” after Ariadne, who, in classical mythology, helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur’s maze), is unmistakably Borgesian, practically begging the film’s viewers to consider questions about reality and choice while witnessing with pulses racing and jaws agape an entire city fold in upon itself and men in suits defy the laws of physics in the complex manner of M.C. Escher and Stanley Kubrick. And yet for all its mirroring of other artists’ sensibilities, Inception is also obviously a film made by no less than Mr. Nolan. Insulated from its moral and philosophical leanings, Inception is still an excellently choreographed actioner, belonging to a category of movies that has been elevated to new heights by Nolan with The Dark Knight. Inception is essentially a heist film where the robbers stick up someone’s mind rather than someone’s vault, where their object of pursuit is abstract rather than material. Inception is a high-speed caper that really holds its audience’s intelligence in high regard. At film’s end, surely the most effective cut-to-black flourish in years, members of the audience are made to realize they’ve just snapped out of a two-and-a-half-hour multileveled shared dream designed by Christopher Nolan, a true architect of the mind if ever I’ve seen one. And like any other dream that is particularly good and exciting, it’s one I imagine most people who’ve seen it will want to have again. I know I do. Next time, though, I won’t bother with the chocolates. Endorphin rush? The film, masterful and mind-blowing, already has that covered. [image via Pelikula Tumblr]

Inception (2010)
D: Christopher Nolan
S: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page

As was my wont in most screenings I had gone to, I walked into Inception carrying four fingers of Kit Kat and a tetra pack of Chuckie. In each of the past screenings where I brought them in lieu of the more common popcorn and soft drink tandem, I ended up consuming them less than fifteen minutes into the film. Inception ran for 148 minutes, and within that relatively long period neither taking a break with my chocolate-covered cream-filled wafers nor taking a choco-bursting sip of my chocolate drink crossed my mind. In retrospect, how could either act possible have done so? When your mind is being messed with by an unusually mind-bending film, there’s no room for such delicious chocolatey prospects. Inception is that rare film which makes even the most dedicated chocolate fiend forget about his sweet tooth even when a couple of chocolate snack items are within his reach while watching it. In other words, Inception is so damn good.

Now that my weak, but sensible, attempts at chocolate metaphors are thankfully done and over with, allow me to try a different sort and then elucidate: Inception is a matryoshka doll of a film, its primary conceit being one which evokes the Edgar Allan Poe poem, A Dream Within A Dream. Most of the scenes in the film take place, as one of its several taglines declares, in “the architecture of the mind,” and its protagonist, Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo Caprio with echoes of his tormented character in Shutter Island), must take advantage of this architecture, to wit, the very nature and design of dreams, to accomplish with a special team of “dream invaders” his eponymous mission: to implant a critical idea into a person’s subconscious—or more specifically, sub-sub-subconscious. Admittedly, this concept of multi-layered communal dreaming, not without its own set of rules, may be difficult to follow at first, giving rise to apparent plot inconsistencies, but for the attentive and perceptive viewer the rewards are extremely gratifying. Like a well-crafted nesting doll, Inception is a creation in which surprises abound.

Almost every twist and turn of Inception is fueled by references to Jorge Luis Borges’s works. The main setting itself, the universe of dreams and their labyrinthine confines (indeed, as writer and director Christopher Nolan named the “dream architect” after Ariadne, who, in classical mythology, helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur’s maze), is unmistakably Borgesian, practically begging the film’s viewers to consider questions about reality and choice while witnessing with pulses racing and jaws agape an entire city fold in upon itself and men in suits defy the laws of physics in the complex manner of M.C. Escher and Stanley Kubrick.

And yet for all its mirroring of other artists’ sensibilities, Inception is also obviously a film made by no less than Mr. Nolan. Insulated from its moral and philosophical leanings, Inception is still an excellently choreographed actioner, belonging to a category of movies that has been elevated to new heights by Nolan with The Dark Knight. Inception is essentially a heist film where the robbers stick up someone’s mind rather than someone’s vault, where their object of pursuit is abstract rather than material. Inception is a high-speed caper that really holds its audience’s intelligence in high regard.

At film’s end, surely the most effective cut-to-black flourish in years, members of the audience are made to realize they’ve just snapped out of a two-and-a-half-hour multileveled shared dream designed by Christopher Nolan, a true architect of the mind if ever I’ve seen one. And like any other dream that is particularly good and exciting, it’s one I imagine most people who’ve seen it will want to have again. I know I do. Next time, though, I won’t bother with the chocolates. Endorphin rush? The film, masterful and mind-blowing, already has that covered.

[image via Pelikula Tumblr]