Movie Review: Inception

Down the list of the many things I was excited about this summer....Kate & I having our 3rd anniversary, finding out the gender of the baby, going to NH...seeing Christopher Nolan's new film, Inception, was definitely up there. Nolan's work with the Batman movies has really elevated the status of a superhero movie and makes it look downright silly when Marvel pulls chump moves like un-casting Edward Norton as the Hulk. Further, Nolan's non-supers movies have been challenging films that keep you thinking and savoring for days after you finished watching the movie.

Because of how excited I was to see Inception, I was nervous that it would be a big letdown.

I was wrong. Christopher Nolan bats 1.000 in my book.

Inception is one of those movies that evades easy explanation. You could say it is a sci-fi, thriller, heist, action, or drama but anyone of those labels would be incomplete. The premise is fairly simple: Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Cobb, is a subconscious thief who is asked to do the impossible. Cobb needs to plant an idea and have it be accepted by the target as the target's own organically grown thought. The cast handles it well by playing it all straight as if the audience is totally used to the idea of mind crimes (Ellen Page is the notable exception, playing the token naive). As the plot progresses, we are treated to the visual candy of Nolan's dreamworld. It is stunning in its simplicity-ordinary objects are given a subtle twist and are filmed with the minimum amount of CGI necessary (debatable, I realize). With the story deep in the land of dreams, I thought I was going to get lost or confused but instead I never felt out of step but had enough loose ends to consider once the credits rolled. A breakthrough performance by Tom Hardy, who has been working for years on the side and could be a leading man in 2011. You'll have to watch to see how the story goes but I really think you'll enjoy it, especially if you liked 'The Prestige'.

Let me know what you thought, if you've seen it.