Inception Movie Review: by Connor Grothe

Creating a script that took over ten years to complete, Christopher Nolan must have known from the beginning that he was crafting the storyline of a movie that would go down in history as the greatest movie that man has ever made. Christopher Nolan’s Inception comes to set the standard for what a perfect movie should embody, being a film that is both enthralling and mentally captivating from the very first scene to the rolling credits.  Nolan exhibits this skill perfectly within the final scene of Inception that exemplifies the very essence of the entire movie in a twist that leaves the audience begging to know the truth that lay just beyond the finalizing blackness of the films end. This 2010 box office smash will not only be a movie that will go down in the record books, but will be forever remembered and held  as the example of what a truly “Great” movie should be.

The brilliance of this movie can only be felt when one understands what it is truly about.  Christopher Nolan’s Inception is the movie of a man with the peculiar, illegal profession of intrusively and secretly entering into people’s dreams in order to change the way their victims think and potentially alter their decision making perception.  Unfortunately, this man becomes so invested in his job that he eventually comes to lose his perception of what is real, and what is a dream, which ultimately changes him like an invisible cancer growing deep inside him.

Even with its perfect plot line, Inception would be nothing without its sensational acting by none other than its main character Leonardo Dicaprio as “Cobb”, playing the role of a distraught widower caught between his overwhelming illegal occupation and the underlying thought that he may never again be able to see his children back in the United States.  Dicaprio’s role as Cobb was more than just believable; it brought the audience into a medium of complete authenticity, and subjectivity that gave the audience a sense of being part of the movie.  Dicaprio’s expressed “guilt” within Cobb due to his wife’s death, became a gut wrenching feeling that any audience member could relate to, thus bringing out the emotional appeal within audience. This drives the audience to respond passionately for Leonardo’s determination to get back to his children and his grief for the loss of his one true love; the woman that he swore to “grow old with”.  Dicaprio’s outstanding acting effortlessly connects the audience with the exciting and touching conflicts within the film, flawlessly accenting the movies magical qualities.

The defining aspect that separates this movie from its great predecessors would be its ability to provoke thought within its audience. Due to Inception’s captivating and complex nature, the audience is put in a position that forces critical thought and focus in order to understand the film, thus lulling the viewer quietly along a path to total emersion into the film.  The scene that captures this essence so perfectly would be the very opening scene of Cobb washing up onto a beach that the audience is yet to know the true significance of until the exact same scene reappears towards the end of the film.  When the scene returns, it comes back with similar, yet different importance, thus forcing the audience to recount their original account of this scene and connect it to what they have come to learn about it throughout the film. This effect can most closely be exemplified through Michael Angelo’s  “Creation of Adam”, atop the Sistine Chapel. This considered masterpiece embodies the same technique used by Christopher Nolan with his film Inception, of intriguing the audience in seeking to discover what is actually trying to be told through the piece, and what its deeper significance might be.  Clearly, what makes a piece “Great” in the world of art has only begun to transcend the world of cinematography. 

Finally, like the finishing touches of all masterpieces, the aspect that brings anything to a higher level of excellence would be its attention to detail. Inception brings to life an entirely new realm of cinema graphic possibilities that has never before been possible. The one scene that perfectly exhibits this notion would be the supporting character’s fighting scene, in which Arthur is fighting within a spinning world, having to  maneuver his way about the walls and ceilings of a hotel hallway to as the dream world’s gravity shifts, creating a scene of extraordinary chaos.  Although this may be hard to visualize, seeing this scene is an unforgettable experience that is simply breathtaking.  Scenes such as these within Inception make this film just that much more aesthetically pleasing to give this movie that extra edge over any other proposed “Great” movie.  Christopher Nolan has created a movie that had exceeded the imaginative possibilities of any other director to ever write a movie.

When one truly analyzes the superiority of Inception, it is hard to imagine that anyone could ever have feelings of opposition towards its “Greatness”, and if they do have the audacity to make such a claim, the reality is that they probably just haven’t comprehended the movie deeply enough to understand its vast arrangement of cinematic values. Inception should be known as a revolutionary breakthrough in the frontier of the modern day motion picture, in that it harbors the defining qualities of all other generally considered “Great” films in a single picture. Inception culminates the “Star crossed lover” emotion of Romeo and Juliet, the action packed excitement of The Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a plot no less involved than that of the entire Star Wars Trilogy.  The only opposition that could possibly be felt towards Inception would be felt by the weak minded, and by those who are not true moviegoers.  Inception is a movie that demands focus, critical thinking, and endurance to be able to see its true brilliance and truly the only people that could possibly feel negativity towards this movie would be those that haven’t truly opened themselves up to the imagination that the film requires.  Through Christopher Nolan’s enthralling combination of acting, plot, and detailed effects he has clearly come to present the greatest movie the world has ever seen; representing the epitome of all motion pictures.

Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmmakersonfilm/7866677/Inception-Christopher-Nolan-interview.html (accessed 12 February, 2012)