Inception: The Beginning of a New Idea

After thoroughly reviewing all of the films that came out in 2010, I've selected Christopher Nolan's film, Inception, for the final segment of my paper.  The justification for my final film selections (Harry Potter, Black Swan, and Inception) is that they have all received a lot of critical attention, they were all widely released (Black Swan wasn't initially a wide release, but was later made a wide release on Dec. 22), and while they don't all inhabit the same genre, they do share some overlap as science fiction/psychological thrillers/fantasy.

So what about Inception?  Personally, I was expecting more twists from Nolan based on his previous achievement with Memento (2000).  The plot of Inception seemed pretty simple (the basement of the mind harbors one's darkest secrets) and the "secrets" didn't seem all that secret.  In fact, the film made them fairly obvious from the beginning.

David Denby of The New Yorker calls the film "an astonishment, an engineering feat, and, finally, a folly."  In Denby's opinion, the dream sequences don't add layers of meaning but only serve as tools for "doubling and redoubling action sequences."  This fascination with doubles appears again in Black Swan so it seems that the movies this year are border-line obsessed with the uncanny double.  Even Harry Potter shares this theme with Harry's constant misrecognitions and his connection to Voldemort (even his resemblance to his father is uncannily similar).  Inception pushes this a bit far, and as Denby says, the film is "devoted to its own workings and to little else."  The film is too focused on the visual, leaving little for the audience to connect with and ultimately losing us.

A.O. Scott of The New York Times links the film to Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams" claiming that movies are actually very similar the the experience of dreaming.  He also claims that the film deals more with "crafty puzzles" than "profound mysteries."  Marion Cotillard as "Mal" is the strongest emotional component of the film, but she falls short of any actual character development.

Harry Knowles on Ain't it Cool News also didn't have much to say: "it still kind of underwhelms the shit out of me."

Rotten Tomatometer Ratings:
All Critics Avg. Rating, 87% liked it as of 12/28/10
Audience Avg. Rating, 93% liked it as of 12/28/10