Inception: Brace Yourself!
July 16 2010, Published 7:29 a.m. ET
Don’t even try to fight it. Just sit back and brace yourself for the heady, brave new world of Inception. Christopher Nolan’s latest film is grandiose, ambitious and all-consuming -- visually and viscerally -- to a startling degree. Forget Memento and -- dare we say it? -- The Dark Knight. Inception drops us into the middle of the action out of the starting gate, and doesn’t let go until it’s all over a whopping two hours and 25 minutes later. Believe the hype: Inception -- and it’s haunting, churning music -- is that good.
Watching the movie also means entering its dreamy turf. In this trippy world, there are psychedelic strolls through Paris where the streets bend upside-down, and snowy hills of Switzerland where baddies on skis are out for blood. This is the playing field for Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a hired gun who steals things for big corporations. Leave low-brow embezzlement to Wall Street; Cobb can mind-meld with subjects’ dreams to steal their ideas -- and their darkest secrets.
A master of his craft, Cobb is about ready to retire when he takes one last job in a deal that would let him go home and reunite with his children. This time, though, Cobb’s mission is not to steal an idea, but to plant one in a process called inception. After some debate (But it can’t be done! ...Or can it?), he assembles his brainy team the way Danny Ocean does in Oceans 13, except more somber (no smirks, no champagne, and definitely no Oprah). When complete, Cobb’s Dream Team includes Ellen Page as Ariadne, the ingenue architect of the dreams they’ll infiltrate, Josep