Inception - released 08/07/2010
I’ve been meaning to write about this one for absolutely ages. I’ve seen a few films since, all of which (with the exception of Toy Story 3 - I can’t bring myself to critique Pixar) I intend to write about, so it looks as though I’m running behind.
Even though I saw it a while ago, Inception has remained quite clear in my mind. The concept of the film is just genius. I can see how some people have found the plot confusing - not everyone is cerebrally equipped to cope with a film that challenges its audience so - but to me the deliberate challenge posed by the makers of this film only endeared me further to it. I love a film that makes me think, but isn’t ludicrously difficult to follow. Inception hit this nail right on the head.
So, good concept, check. How about the casting? To me, the casting of this film was incredible. I’m a Leonardo DiCaprio fan anyway, so it’s not really a surprise that I love him in it. That man is so, so versatile. He delivers an incredible performance movie after movie, whether he be playing Romeo in Baz Luhrman’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or a white African in Blood Diamond. Never could that man be cast as a “type” actor like so many of his contemporaries are.
What did surprise me, though, was that I liked Ellen Page’s Ariadne. I did not like Juno, and thought that it would probably condemn Page to teen comedies and chick flicks as it did with her co-star in Juno Michael Cera, but she has really broken out of the mould I perhaps unfairly imposed on her. I won’t lie, her acting wasn’t sensational and she didn’t seem much different to the way she was in Juno, but she has proven that she can hold her own in a more “serious” genre of film, and for a young actress not yet at the peak of her career, that is a very good thing.
Another thing I liked about Inception was the subtle but exceptionally effective placement of humour, particularly visual humour. It isn’t very often that what you see is the reason you find something funny. It can range from something as little as a facial expression to something as grand as a gesture or action and can vary in impact from supplementing the verbal to bringing entirely new meaning to something that is said. This film uses both the small and the grand gesture to add humour and breaks the tension so typical of a film of this genre.
The effects in this film were, for lack of a better expression, to die for. Standard cinema has really upped its game in the last year or so what with the move to digital technology instead of crumbly film reels (I suppose we have 3D to thank for something good as well as a headache…), so audiences can really appreciate how outstanding the graphics in a film can be. And the cinema definitely helped me to appreciate the excellent graphics and effects in Inception. The way reality can be literally bent into different shapes, defying physics and challenging technology, is amazing. And it doesn’t look obviously fake. CGI has come on remarkably. I wonder if they could make the weather forecast so exciting… but perhaps the BBC doesn’t have quite the same budget as Warner Brothers.
Overall, I would definitely rate this film. If you try not to overthink it, you won’t get brainache from the complex twists and turns of the plot and the different layers of consciousness won’t feel like too much of a challenge. Sit back, relax, switch brain into autopilot and just enjoy this masterpiece of a film. And then jump for joy (as high as you can) when it gets released on Blu-Ray and you can enjoy those astounding visual effects (and DiCaprio’s not unattractive face) in real HD!
