Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

What's it about? Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an extractor. He can enter people's dreams when they are asleep and steal their ideas. When he is challenged to plant an idea instead, he assembles his team and prepares to construct a dangerous dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream scenario to do so. Unfortunately, he has some emotional baggage concerning his dead wife which threatens to derail the whole operation.

Is it any good? Proof that brains and brawn aren’t mutually exclusive in a summer blockbuster. An exciting action flick that also credits its audience with the intelligence to keep up with the brain-teasing concepts and developments presented. It's helped along the way by a strong cast (including Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page) with DiCaprio doing particularly well to bring some emotional investment to the table. Of particular note is the hotel zero-gravity scenes, which are a thrilling piece of cinema, both in concept and execution. Some plotholes in the narrative do seem apparent throughout, although these can no doubt be explained away by adopting one of the many theories about the film that have been proposed, fuelled in no small part by the tantalising/frustrating* (*delete as appropriate) ambiguous ending.

I don't trust you. What do others think? People went wild for it, setting the Internet alight as people argued and raged about what exactly happened, what it all meant and if it was all actually a load of old bollocks. If it confuses you, here's a cut-out-and-keep diagram to help you figure it out. Naturally, it contains spoilers. Much excitement also generated by the link between the ominous score and the Edith Piaf song Je Ne Regrette Rien which is used throughout the movie. Basically, the film got people talking and powered it into one of the most successful films of all time at the box office.

Inception explained. Sort of.

Anything else I should know? Think of Inception like a set of those Russian dolls. More specifically, the set I have at home, which individually look lovely, but don't quite fit inside each other perfectly. And that's kind of annoying because I feel with a little extra filing and sanding, they would have been perfect. But then I realise I have to be looking pretty closely to see where the cracks are and I might as well enjoy the fact they're rather fetching without poking around for flaws. So, Inception is like that. Clear?

What does the Fonz think? Two thumbs up. Or am I dreaming?

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