Inception

Inception is an event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of subsequent events. This definition gives a hint as to what might be going on in this film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, that is if you can hang with this muddled plot which goes off in all directions at the same time.

DiCaprio is assisted in this caper by Ellen Page who floats through the mayhem and madness with a faint smile that changes into a worried look, then becomes that of a placid bystander. Not a lot of acting required for that role. She travels with DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe and Cilian Murphy as they play with mind control sequences as a form of corporate espionage. They invade the dreams of wealthy folks to dig up tightly guarded secrets. After absorbing that news you are on your own trying to translate the endless gun battles, chase sequences, explosive eruptions, buildings collapsing into the sea, people floating around the room and bouncing off the walls and ceilings while supposedly dreaming.

Every possible pyrotechnic mechanism is used to move the action along as the characters appear in six or more different locations, finally ending up landing at Los Angles Airport for the resolution of this two and a half hour contest to see whether the viewers are going to hang all the way through with this crowd or beat it to the nearest bar to try to sort out what it was that the writer/director Christopher Nolan had in mind.

The guest, a sophisticated film fan who accompanied this scribe, unscrambled himself out of his seat and wobbled out to the lobby with a sigh of relief. He searched his memory bank and shaking his head finally commented: “That Christopher Nolan is one sick dude.”

The best parts of the film according this duo were the sequences showing the rapidity with which the Japanese Bullet trains move.

Slogging through this piece it is easy to conclude that messin’ with dreams leads to a nightmare.