For the kick-off entry, as I am waiting for the new fall season, a few thoughts on Inception … for a film that totally blew my mind, I find myself oddly unsure whether to rave or rant when asked about it.
*Spoilers*
On its face, the movie is a thrill ride in line with many ensemble heist adventures (I’m thinking Ocean’s, Italian Job, etc.). But, when the target of the heist lies in the depth of someone’s innermost subconscious (literally), the story is bound to be elevated to new levels of complexity and offer ample opportunities to examine the psychologies of some characters.
Synopsis:
Leonardo DiCaprio (whose acting abilities I never doubted despite being one of the few girls of my generation to never have swooned over him) is Dom Cobb, a fugitive who makes a living entering and extracting secrets from people’s dreams. He runs his schemes with his sidekick partner Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I actually did swoon over once upon a time (courtesy of 3rd Rock and 10 Things I Hate About You) and who, after proving his talent time and again on the indie circuit, seems to have finally broken through to the mainstream audience (I don’t think GI Joe or even 500 Days of Summer really did the trick).
Though Cobb dubs himself the best in the business, he and Arthur fail to extract the necessary information from businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe, this cast just keeps getting better and better), due to sabotage by Cobb’s deceased wife, Mal (Marion Cottilard, again, awesome), a frequent visitor/nemesis in his dream missions (so yes, Cobb has issues). To escape the wrath of his dangerous former employer and, more importantly, to be able to return to America and his two children, Cobb accepts Seito’s offer to plant an idea in the mind of Robert Fischer (Cilian Murphy, not quite the scarecrow in this one) to break up his dead father’s business empire. Cobb quickly assembles a team for this complicated anti-extraction, recruiting a forger, Eames (Tom Hardy, another breakout for me), a chemist, Yusuf (Dileep Rao, aka the scientist in Avatar) and a new architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), recommended by his father-in-law (Michael Caine). For her part, Ariadne is curiously as committed to figuring out Cobb’s issues as she is to the actual mission.
Operation Inception is launched in the first class cabin of a transatlantic flight to the U.S. (Saito has bought the airline and is tagging along for the ride). To complete the mission, the team must enter 3 levels of dreams (i.e., a dream within a dream within a dream), which is too unstable and allegedly “impossible” (though obviously not). Because they are heavily sedated for this risky venture, dying in a dream level throws them into “limbo”, which I gather is just the level beyond which the architect had crafted (since Ariadne only constructed 3 dream levels, the 4th level would be limbo). Cobb had apparently been stuck in and escaped limbo before, along with Mal, and this excursion has a lot to do with Mal’s eventual death and Cobb’s inner demons.
To sum up the mission – it does not go as planned. The first level dream is Yusuf’s; chaos ensues (Saito catches a bullet and is dying), and Yusuf stays behind to man his dream while the others jump to the next level, Arthur’s dream. Yusuf also creates a “jolt” for the others to “kick” them back from the 2nd level dream by driving their sleeping bodies in a van off a bridge. More chaos in the second level, and Arthur stays behind to choke people kick some ass, as well as set up the “kick” for the rest to return from the 3rd level dream, Eames’ (allegedly). Things quickly unravel in the 3rd level as Mal appears once again, shoots Fischer and causes Cobb and Ariadne to follow her and Fischer to limbo (Eames stays behind to create the “kick”). Ariadne and Fischer successfully return to level 3 in the nick of time to complete the inception and ride the “kicks,” which are all synched to occur at the same time, back to dream level 1. Cobb remains in limbo to deal with Mal and finally puts his guilt for her death to rest. But, now Cobb is also stuck in limbo. He is in good company though, as Saito couldn’t hold on and had kicked the bucket in level 3. The two meet in what appears to be limbo decades later. Words are exchanged that seem to trigger their memories, and Saito picks up a gun to … not sure but they both wake up back on the plane with the rest of the team and Fischer. Surreptitious looks are exchanged between the dreamers as they go their separate ways, pretending not to know one another, and Cobb fulfills his dream of returning to his kids. The end.
Except, not (at least not for the audience).
Too many other possibilities:
If the movie had been as simple as the above, I would clearly have loved it as an original, exciting and clever movie, but it definitely would not have been as thought-provoking or haunting. Therein lies my dilemma, as much as I love the complexity and the twists of this brilliantly executed film, I’m not sure I like being so frustrated and disturbed by the ambiguities in the film. I don’t mind ambiguous endings (fitting example being “Love Me If You Dare” starring Mal Marion), but in this case, because the details and complexities in the movie all seemed to make sense and tie together, the ambiguous ending seemed like a throw-away, done for the heck of it, just to mind-boggle the viewers.
The ending basically raises the possibility of the following scenarios:
- The movie is as explained above – inception completed, main character (Cobb) deals with his demons and is redeemed through the process.
- The movie is as explained above EXCEPT the ending – Cobb never actually gets out of limbo but just accepts the dream world as reality => not a fulfilling ending imo, since Cobb’s main motivation throughout the film is to separate dream from reality and to only accept what is real.
- The entire movie is a dream – Cobb never got out of limbo the first time (implication being Mal was right and may actually be alive and trying to rescue Cobb) => unlikely imo
- The entire movie is a dream or portions of the movie reality is a dream – but the ending is real
Although I definitely prefer the ending to be real (sucker for happy endings), I would be okay if it were one of the other possibilities if it is made clear. My personal favorite theory is the movie is actually an inception performed on Cobb disguised as a different mission (or maybe a two birds with one stone situation) orchestrated by the father-in-law to get Cobb to finally come home. I think it is possible Cobb was a fugitive of his own guilt – maybe his not being able to see his children was self-inflicted …
I just don’t appreciate the film’s “let each interpret it in his/her own way” approach, as something seems to be wrong/not completely explainable with every scenario, and hence there is no perfect explanation for the film. On the other hand, maybe the point is for life to imitate art, and the movie itself was a clever inception on the audience – a dreamlike experience at the end of which you are confounded as to what you just witnessed and cannot say positively what was real and what was just a dream … I guess I can buy that : )
So, jury is still out on Inception, but don’t hold your breath … unless there is a sequel (which will no doubt explain away the ambiguities … maybe).
