Inception...Deception

Hi 2A1!!! Hope this finds everyone getting top grades, preparing diligently for exams and enjoying your Sec 2 year. Kevin asked me for my thoughts, via email, on "Inception" about a month ago; alas I hadn't seen it. Just got back from IMAX and finally had the full, five-storey experience. Here's my take on it...for what it's worth.
I could have chosen a number of different pictures to accompany the discussion/review but this one captured the essence of the movie for me. The opening scene has DiCaprio washed up on a beach encased in "the sands of time." I loved the implied metaphor in the picture of the sand castles and their tranistory existence; the movie continually plays with that concept of time and reality. His wife is central to his being: he attempted inception on her, she invades his dreams even now and he longs to re-unite with her on some existential level. He only takes the inception job because it will allow him to return to his children. Another recurrent theme of reuniting with loved ones.
How many levels does DiCaprio enter to accomplish his faux/architecturally designed reality is open to interpretation. I read a couple of reviews and even they disagreed with one another...just as the reader of this blog will probably disagree with my take on the movie. But isn't that invitation to personal interpetation what makes it such a great flick?
Loved the cast except for maybe one person. DiCaprio has matured into the "Clark Gable/Humphrey Bogart" of the 21st Century. He's consistently great, although I really hated "Shutter Island." Probably not his fault, maybe Scorsese's. Loved shape-shifter Tom Hardy. Had never seen him before but watched him in this outrageous movie called "Bronson." I think it's restricted so I know none of my former students will have seen it, but he plays England's most incarcerated prisoner in solitary confinement. He spends over three decades in solitary and never murdered anyone! I didn't even recognize him in "Inception." To me that's the sign of a great actor. It reminded me of Jeremy Renner from "The Hurt Locker." I'd never seen him before but was really taken by this pudgy, guy-next-door character who is such an adrenaline junkie. Then I took in Ben Affleck's "The Town" and Renner played an over-the-top, small-time hood. I completely bought his character again and look forward to seeing him in future flicks. Now when it comes to the "architect," Ellen Page, I'm not buying it. Page was such a hit in "Juno" as the wise-cracking pregnant teen that I just could't take her in this role. Marion Cotillard as the wife is perfect. There were so many in-jokes that I won't even try to cover them but one of the best was the music that brought them out of their dreams. It was Cotillard's tune from her academy-award winning role of Edith Piaf.
I realize that "Inception" is not really about character: typically sci/fi has always been about concepts, technology, plot, etc. But that's what elevates this film above the rest. By film's end you rejoice with DiCaprio "seeing" his children and there's real chemistry between him and Cotillard. Many dramas fail at this level so for a sci/fi's characters to actually engage the audience as they do in "Inception" is a triumph. The ten years it took Nolan to write and film his opus was definitely worth the wait.

Jo-Ann and I were looking for a place to eat after the show. We ended up driving to our city zoo where they have a beautiful pavillion, and great food. It was just turning dusk and we were seated on the periphery of the restaurant. In the inner circle was a group of about thirty people celebrating a 60th birthday. The restaurant is all windows and as we waited for our orders, we watched the light dissipating, a group of teens with one adult running through the trees, and the change of seasons as winter slowly invaded the park. My wife commented on what a great day it had been. I responded that our surroundings reminded me a little too much of the movie: I couldn't get into the movie with any degree of certainty and now I remained on the periphery of the restaurant; I was experiencing too many personal changes with the night, season and weather in flux. Even the group of young teens, running for their life with one adult in the mix, was somehow unsettling. She laughed and said forget about the movie, we're now in the real world. My only response was...are we?