Made Fun!

Christopher Nolan is one of the strongest blockbuster filmmakers right now, and Inception proves that all over again. He’s definitely my favorite of all the contenders today, but the thing about fan behavior is that as much as that inspires an immediate interest and excitement about someone or something in us, it means we’re also very aware of that individual’s strengths, tells, and weaknesses pretty well, since because we’ve been so obsessed for a prolonged period of time. I was hooked with Memento. It’s been some years tracing Nolan’s career. I could probably make a list a la How To Spot A Shyamalan or even rough draft a bingo card.

Not that it makes Inception any less compelling, quite the opposite, but it isn’t without things seen from Nolan before. I mean…

…yeah.

What makes Nolan movies worthwhile for me despite how familiar I am with his general M.O. is that his world-building is consistently excellent. Then, to help realize these universes, he assembles a team of extremely smart cast and crew. From Wally Pfister’s cinematography to hiring actors like Guy Pearce, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Christian Bale, and so on, Nolan allows himself to create summer films that are still psychologically challenging. It isn’t a bunch of trying too hard to be intriguing. Instead, it’s a team of people already smart enough to open their minds to something a little strange and creative enough to make them accessible.

Inception, much like The Prestige and the Batman franchise, takes a hyper-realist approach to magical elements. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a professional thief focused on extracting valuable information from dreams. Cobb spends his time doing illegal work in various parts of the world, because past demons prevent him from going home to the United States and his children. This all changes when the head of a corporation challenges him to do one last job in exchange for a clean slate. He and his partner, Arthur (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), assemble a small team of players that includes Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, and Dileep Rao all attempting a task believed to be near-impossible: Can true inspiration be falsified? It’s well-established that there are those capable of extracting ideas and information from dreams, but can an idea be planted in a mind without leaving traces of coercion?

Many of the key Christopher Nolan elements are used in this film. Let’s not waste time; that bingo card can be filled in pretty quickly. Here we go: loss of a spouse, exposing how unreliable and easy to persuade the human mind can be, a Michael Caine appearance, a man fueled by guilt and a need to absolve himself.

Watching how Nolan uses these different beats keeps the movie interesting. While his previous movies introduce mysticism through illusion, with Inception, the ability to enter a dram space allows for a forum where seemingly implausible situations are valid. In dreams, worlds that fold in on themselves can exist. There can be entire scenes where gravity is suspended, and if someone gets killed, they don’t have to die because they aren’t actually real or, if they are, will just wake up. The rules can be completely different if a writer creates a second world largely separated from reality. It’s reminiscent of The Matrix but set in reverse, and it makes Nolan’s protagonist just as untrustworthy as the leads in Fight Club, The Secret Window, Shutter Island, and of course, Memento. The truth doesn’t matter quite as much as what the characters — and especially the audience — are willing to believe is real.

This is also first screenplay Christopher Nolan’s written and directed that isn’t based on a pre-existing novel or franchise. It becomes an amalgamation of all better elements of ideas he first toyed with throughout those other works, this time placing Leonardo DiCaprio at the helm. Leo does well as Cobb. It’s no surprise, because he’s pretty much a pro when it comes to portraying inner torture. It might even be on his business cards. The only real downfall here is sort of beyond their control, heightened by timing. Leonardo DiCaprio was in Shutter Island a few months ago, the angst-y dead wife pain in Inception echoes a lot of the angst-y dead wife pain we’ve already seen from him this year, and DiCaprio doesn’t do anything different enough to fully distance the characters other than dropping the Boston accent.

Luckily, he’s bracketed by a supporting cast who are all on on top of their game. Ellen Page is the newest to dream extraction, walking the fine line between skeptically curious and willing to go along for the ride well enough to lead the audience into the world. Joseph-Gordon Levitt does a fantastic job playing the straight man of the movie, buttoned-up and focused. Tom Hardy’s character plays his opposite in a lot of way, bringing levity and playfulness to the mix, along with Dileep Rao, and finally, Ken Watanabe rounding out the central cast as the rich businessman who funds the whole affair.

Cillian Murphy is the mark, believably naive and arrogant at the same time. Once the movie ends and you get through the first round of reflecting on the world-building, it’s hard not to come back and contemplate the full weight of his character’s involvement. Unlike Ocean’s 11, Murphy’s characte Robert Fischer is never set up as someone completely deserving of systematic destruction, and yet Cobb  and his team manipulate his mind and leave him living a(n intricate and masterfully constructed, but still) fabricated existence, ready to carry out deeds that might potentially ruin his career and leave him with untrue perceptions of his life and father. Because of that, a movie that spends two hours trying to convince Cobb that he can find redemption also simultaneously re-cements him as being selfishly motivated and irredeemable.

Except, true to Nolan’s nature, the audience never finds out what happens to Fischer. The audience also never finds out whether or not any of these other team members feel anything about what they do, other than focusing on the urgency of survival and executing their plan. There’s no true look into remorse, pride, or even a sense of triumph. The whole story is constructed this way, giving enough information to suspend disbelief for the world, buy into characters, and staying narrowly focused to avoid inviting in too many plot holes. Some exist. For instance, we don’t know why Cobb’s kids don’t seem to age, why not all of the elements of one dream level affect another (free fall factors into levels one and two of their plan for Fischer, but not three), why Cobb and Mal didn’t try to kill themselves sooner to wake up if that’s what it took to leave limbo — were there failed attempts? But for the most part, the characters and immediate goals of the film push viewers through the story, buoyed by clever visuals and a fascinating world that keeps people guessing about how exactly it’ll reach conclusions, even if it’s possible to predict certain aspects.

And that’s just how the Christopher Nolan game seems to work. And I have to admit that I’m still a fan. Even if some of the pieces feel like old favorites by now, we never really know how he’ll arranged them inside a brand new world. The only way to know is to try it, and then his movies end up making over 21 million dollars in one day, thanks to people like me sitting around, waiting to see how we get to Bingo this round.

- Chanelle Berlin Johnson