Ever since "The Blind Side" left theaters, there hasn't been what you'd call a "good movie." With the disappointment of "Toy Story 3," it looked like the movie industry had gone down the tube.
Then along comes "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan, with quite a surprise up his sleeve!
"Inception" centers around Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who we find washed up on a beach in the opening scene. He's taken to see an old Chinese man, and then he wakes up in what appears to be Iraq, and then he wakes up again.
Gradually we learn Cobb and his loyal companion (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has the ability to enter people's dreams to extract information, presumably from a person suspected of a crime. A high-powered businessman (Ken Watanabe) wants Cobb to perform an "inception"--plant a dream in someone's head. And that someone is the son and supposed successor (Cillian Murphy) of a dying rival businessman.
Cobb hires some new members of the team, including an architecture student (Ellen Page) who takes particular interest in him. She soon learns that Cobb has another motive behind the inception--he's falsely accused of a crime, and performing the inception will somehow clear his name so he can go home to his children.
But it's best to stop there before too much is revealed. Using dazzling visual effects, director Nolan has created a film that is completely in its own category. There's even some humor thrown in. And for once it's not the acting that's the highlight, though the acting is top-notch.
In "Inception" we find the same complexity and creativity that we found in Andrew Davis's "Holes." Director Nolan makes no attempt to simplify the story for the audience, poses questions which are answered during the course of the movie, and leaves the viewer deep in thought at the end.
But there's really no need to simplify the story. One critic suggested that the viewer let the film go over your head, figure it out, and then see it again. But while there are still some confusing elements of the film, the viewer should have most of the film figured out by the end.
Possibly the year's best movie, "Inception" is a mind-blowing phenomenon.
