Introduction
Nine years in the making, “Inception” premiered in the summer of 2010 as an intense and convoluted but entertaining warning about the promise and perils of understanding human dreams. It is too soon to tell whether the critical acclaim that greeted the movie will translate to Oscar, Golden Globe or Palme d’Ore trophies in early 2011. Clearly, however, Christopher Nolan kept his somewhat apocalyptic vision of human frailty in the science-fiction genre unified by co-opting all three roles of scriptwriter, producer and director. Add to that healthy doses of intrigue, venturing into the mysteries of the human mind, action, treachery, suspense, the box office pull of Leonardo DiCaprio, and one has a very compelling film indeed.
Summary/Synopsis
It is important to understand the role and reality DiCaprio plays in order to grasp the rather complex plot with its twists, turns, and surprises. He claims to be the most successful extractor ever, from whom no secret is ever safe because he possesses the ability to burrow into the human mind, even the subconscious when the target is dreaming. As the plot unravels, he is revealed as having a murky past. Cobb (the character) is a widower and unable to see his children because he is a fugitive from American justice.
In both the opening and closing scenes, Cobb is shown with a top.
This, it is explained, is his one solid link to reality. The DiCaprio character knows that the constant switching between dreams and reality is so mesmerizing and seems so equally real that he needs the test of a spinning top to tell where he is. If the top surrenders to gravity sooner or later, Cobb knows he is awake. If the top is in perpetual motion, the extractor knows he is dreaming, no matter how real it all seems.
This seamless transition between waking and sleeping states is amply demonstrated during the first few minutes of the film when ruthless Japanese businessman Saito (played by that evergreen Oriental heavy, Ken Watanabe) hatches his plot to enlist Cobb and sidekick Arthur (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a bid to make the son of his main rival, the American Fischer, dissolve the family-controlled conglomerate. Saito counts on than picking up the pieces of the business empire at fire-sale prices. To test Cobb’s skill, Saito lures him into picking the contents of the latter’s safe during a group dreaming session. Cobb succeeds at the test but this build-up to the middle portion of the film underlines the weak boundary between dream and reality when Cobb meets his already-dead wife when one of the gangs wakes up screaming after being shot in the common dream (whereas killing someone in a dream causes him to wake up unharmed), and Cobb purloins an envelope with secret documents from Saito’s safe.
Deciding they can make common cause; the gang kidnaps the Fischer son while in flight and carry out their planned group dream session. Right at the start, however, they come under attack from subconscious projections that Fischer Jr. had devised to protect himself from just such attacks. In the dream, Saito is badly injured and runs the risk of slipping into limbo forever. At this point, it is revealed that Cobb and his wife had chosen to stay in limbo a long time. The anguish that corrodes his soul is the memory of his wife pinning her successful suicide on him as murder just to stop him from returning to the real world.
A gang member who excels in disguise turns himself into Fischer’s godfather, ostensibly the mastermind of the kidnapping. While the rest of the team convince Fischer to probe his “godfather’s” mind for the motives behind the kidnapping, they themselves enter a third level of the dream to plant the idea of dissolving the family conglomerate in a snowcapped mountain fortress that the son is compelled to penetrate as a challenge.
The climax dream sequences are even more convoluted and action-packed. Cobb’s long-vanished wife, Mal, kills Fischer and sends him into limbo. DiCaprio’s Cobb and one other gang member pursue and confront her, revealing he was indirectly the cause of her suicide. Initially inclined to plead with Cobb to stay in limbo with her, the revelation impels her to turn on Cobb. At that, the other gang member kills her. Cobb then locates the aged Saito and convinces him to return to reality. Because the latter agrees, they both re-awake on the plane and find everyone alive and well. Cobb is reunited with his children. Unable to believe the happy event, Cobb spins his top to test reality but the movie credits roll while the top is still spinning.
Conclusion
This is a film that does not depend on a constellation of stars because it succeeds with DiCaprio as the only popular face here. Credit must go to his maturing acting ability, reminding one of the critical acclaim garnered by “Blood Diamond” (2006). Ultimately, it is the compelling proposition crafted by Nolan, staying true to the vision of dream stealers he first divulged as an 80-page story treatment in 2001. The idea that we are all vulnerable to the weak boundaries between reality and dreamland becomes the credible basis for portraying ruthless competition and a savage interplay of emotions, leaving audiences gasping in suspended disbelief. And, after all, that is what cinema is meant to see.