CINEMATIC Review

INCEPTION   ****

Christopher Nolan

2010

IDEA:   A corporate espionage group specializes in the extraction of ideas from other peoples' dreams. Now, they take on a new job - to implant one.

BLURB:   The folding architecture and shifting dreamscapes are only the beginning of this skillful, rousing sci-fi epic, a thrilling action flick that reveals a surprisingly sturdy and practical psychological core amidst its weighty construction. The trick lies in the great MacGuffin, the story strand that is followed as our main concern when there are much heavier, more demanding layers ominously building beneath, a galvanizing human component that acts as the decisive puzzle piece to the whole game. All throughout the second half we are treated to scenes of spectacular grandeur, the high-concept physical and philosophical ideas of the plot executed in fantastically tangible opulence. Here is also where the themes of perception, illusion, and self-made reality become the most forthcoming, and the mark they leave on the last shot says it all: objective reality is an impossible enterprise. Reality to each person is something inherently colored by, and steered by, individual impression. Nolan presents it like a real architect, and even better, an expert thinker.