Lucid scheming

The tidal wave of hyperbolic praise and flippant dismissals accompanying the release of Christopher Nolan's latest dystopian epic is perplexing. Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight) is a talented director, and as with virtually every film he's touched, Inception is clever and engaging. But despite how seriously it takes itself, it is decidedly insubstantial.

A proper description of the plot is impossible without spoilers - even the trailers are intentionally vague in this regard. The nature of the tale dictates that the underlying order of its fictive reality is called into question, from the opening scenes right up to the closing moments. To say that it is a psychological thriller of epic proportions with a star-studded cast that features a Byzantine heist subplot and parallel love story, both of which take place intermittently in various states of shared dreaming where the laws of nature only loosely apply, would be to understate the film's complexity and inflate its intellectual weight - but it will have to do.

Nolan's film is well-paced, ambitiously conceived, suspenseful, kinetic and visually stunning. It is also derivative (Nolan has gone on record as crediting The Matrix, Dark City and The Thirteenth Floor as inspirations), overlong and strangely lacking in purpose. It has been discussed as though it were pregnant with meaning, but it is in fact little more than a superficially high-brow summer blockbuster. That said, it is definitely worth the price of admission.

Despite the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio (who reprises his oft-repeated role as the anxious, tortured hero), Inception is an ensemble piece through and through. Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine, among others, all bring their talents to bear. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives DiCaprio a run for his money as his sidekick and point man, stealing scenes from the overused star and displaying his range despite being encumbered with a decidedly one-dimensional role.

Some fresh thematic elements are presented, if not seriously explored, including the role of the unconscious mind in both concealing and revealing closely held personal secrets and the poisonous effects of holding on too doggedly to the past. The relationships between the characters, on the other hand, are trite and melodramatic in the extreme. When DiCaprio finally faces up to the necessity of moving on from the memory of his true love, for example, it is difficult to muster up the requisite energy to care.

Nolan's film incessantly questions our basic assumptions about reality and the unconscious. But unlike The Matrix and other films that venture into similar territory, it never effectively rises to the level of metaphor, and its probing on these subjects is instantly forgettable. The director has repeatedly proven that he's up to the task of piloting large-scale, complex thrillers, but one wonders if perhaps he might be better-suited to something a little more meaningful and a little less clever.

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com