Inception

A character from "Inception" confesses, "True inspiration is impossible to fake."

There is much meaning behind that statement since it comes from the vibrant mind of Christopher Nolan.

In 2008, Nolan delivered one of the most popular films of all-time, "The Dark Knight." Equally revered by critics, the film dived into the dark side of comic book hero Batman. Examining the psyche of dual identities and the fine line between cop and criminal, "The Dark Knight” delved into pathways for the Caped Crusader we’d not seen yet.

Enter “Inception,” a mind-bending sci-fi heist epic ripe with such vivid creativity that one might have to pinch themselves at how perfect it is.

Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief. Only his thefts involve entering dreams to steal the subject’s ideas. His subconscious also comes into play in others’ dreams. His dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) has become increasingly present, though, risking Cobb and his team’s task.

But he’s also an international fugitive and is offered a chance to return home to the U.S. and his children living with Cobb’s university mentor and father-in-law (Michael Caine). The offer comes from rich businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe), who wants Cobb to accomplish a nearly-impossible feat: implant an idea instead of stealing one—a technique known as inception.

Saito’s mark is Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy). Fischer is son to a dying man who is head of a company that has remained in a competitive battle with Saito.

Saito wants Cobb and his team—right-hand man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), subconscious identity forger Eames (Tom Hardy), sedative dream weaver Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and newly-hired dream-world architect Ariadne (Ellen Page)—to dive into the layers of Fischer’s subconscious, dreams within dreams, and plant the idea that disowning his dying father will release the two rivals from competition and elevate Saito to corporate dominance.

What Nolan has created with “Inception” is a layered masterpiece of complex imagination, a visual feast that is no doubt aimed for dreamers of intelligent pieces of cinematic art to pop up once in awhile during periods of summer film dread. All the weaving between dream-within-dream “realities” takes a true master of their craft to make them seem, in a way, plausible.

Nolan is that genius. “Inception” elevates him to the upper echelon of cinema’s great storyteller’s like Scorsese, Spielberg, Kubrick and Hitchcock, if he isn’t there already after “The Dark Knight” and a string of delightfully taught works that started with 2000’s equally-mind bending “Memento.”

“Inception,” at its general core, is a heist movie. Nolan has merely added the sci-fi element of existing in others’ dreams as a backdrop, as if author Philip K. Dick had written 1992’s “Sneakers.” Waves of originality with echoes of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Matrix” and Dick-based “Blade Runner” make this both a homage to classics of various genres and a signal to more great things to come.

The cast is an equally masterful gathering of talent befitting a director as good as Nolan, although it is tough to single out one over the other; it feels more like an ensemble piece. Still, DiCaprio continues to mature into an actor who has become accepting of very mature themes, such as earlier this year in Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island.” DiCaprio’s performance in that was a preferred one, but, again, in Nolan’s film, he’s part of a group.

And each member of that group is capable to the task at hand, notably Page in a matured performance, far removed from her work in “Juno;” Gordon-Levitt for both a steely demeanor and bodywork for one of the single greatest fight scenes ever; and Cotillard as the lost soul of a tortured psyche.

“Inception” is a movie with a brain, made for those who wish to engage their own minds with thoughtful, intelligent works. And for those who forgot theirs at home: the film does not condescend to them, dazzling their eyes with such amazing action scenes. Either way, the film’s first half, the exposition accomplished in the first half lays the ground rules for what is to come, so come attentive—you’re in for educated entertainment.

“Inception” is almost like a dream come true. Its that dream you like to have over and over again, because, while your rest easy, you have a smile on your face, basking in the satisfaction that when you awake, you can’t wait to go back.