INCEPTION

What can I say about this movie outside of the trillions of websites that will inevitably spring up trying to make sense of it? This movie will spawn its own religion.

And you know something – it’s a REALLY GOOD MOVIE. It has some flaws, but it’s meaty and makes you think for days afterward. Non-stop.

If you like your movies linear like a good Sherlock Holmes plot, turn around, and walk away, girlfriend! This movie is big, splashy, showy and all over the place. It feels like an abstract jigsaw puzzle carelessly strewn across a table - yet, at any given ‘sudden lockdown’ moment, this movie knows exactly where all the parts are, and how they relate to each other (though only repeated viewings will prove this to be true).

It’s reminiscent of THE MATRIX in lots of ways. A device to enter dreams must be physically present, and people must be plugged into it. Yet, once Nolan has the rules established, he entirely goes to town with them. I honestly had no idea what was going on for about 40-50% of the time, but if you stick with it and work HARD, it starts to answer questions you had about 15-20 minutes ago, while you’re busy processing the asteroids of new information hurtling at you, constantly. The net effect is like a two and a half hour rigorous enema – utterly exhausting, but not without its definite charms.

Nolan is back to his obsessive themes again – dealing with unfulfilled romantic love in an environment of unreliable memory, and the effects of ‘father-loss’. The entire movie is about Leo trying to get home and be a father again – yet his own father issues are complex and austere, and impinge upon his efficacy as a ‘successful’ grown up man.

Both women in this movie are wild cards – and yet the men are very clearly defined. The Ellen Page character while interesting, ultimately has no gravitas – it’s like she’s simply there for the cool ride, and for satisfying that box-office demographic. And when she tries to become an authority in Leo’s ‘marriage’, she makes no sense – like what does she know that can possibly help?? While we all love Ellen Page (who doesn’t?), it feels like much of her part in the film has already ended up on the cutting room floor to make the movie shorter, and so her motivations in scenes are sometimes unclear, and ultimately unsatisfying. And by the way, who is Tom Hardy? And where have they been hiding him? The most magnetic performance from a breathtakingly handsome man. WOW! Move over Daniel Craig - your number is up.

But, don’t resist - this movie is the MUST SEE of the summer. And please don’t criticize it because you don’t fully understand it the first time. Because YOU’RE NOT MEANT TO.

This film is aimed squarely at the video game generation, who relish the concept of being lost in something far greater than themselves, knowing in faith, that everything will make sense in the end. They want to be challenged. They want to have to see it again and again to gauge how clever they were the previous time. And Warner Brothers is totally depending on that!