Helly's Film Take- Inception

Hmm..where to start?! Well let's start with expectations. I was very excited about Inception, but purely because of the names involved as I had absolutely no inkling as to what it was about as the trailer is just a series of images and gives away absolutely nothing (so you needn't have bothered closing your eyes and sticking your fingers in your ears Lee and Eden!) I think this fact alone already makes it a film a cut above the rest of other mega budget movies as they often try and show you as much as possible in the trailer to reel you in. Now that I've seen the film, I realise that it would be impossible to try and summise the complexity of Inception into a two minute trailer and it would probably end up looking like a completely different film. So kudos to whoever had the final say in putting together the trailer as they made the right call by just showing us some interesting images which were enough to spark our interest.

Now to the subject at hand, Inception is similar to Memento in that even if you don't fully understand what is going on at every minute, you are still desperate to know and figure it out and that's what keeps you watching. It's like a puzzle and Christopher Nolan gives you the pieces but it's up to you to assemble it. Another similarity between the two films is that both explore the notions of space and time, so it must be a subject matter Nolan is very interested in. The notion of time in particular is something which fascinated me throughout this film. When the car is falling from the bridge and they state the amount of time for this to occur is elongated with each dream realm was a concept I found both fascinating and mind boggling. In hindsight it was also a great way of avoiding the audience's scepticism, as it would be hard to believe that the climactic scene all unfolded in the space of a few minutes.

The whole cast is fantastic, the acting is focused and confident in a way that doesn't draw attention to itself. In other words I don't think the acting is the first thing that people will comment on upon leaving the cinema as the multi-layered story takes centre stage. It's almost as if the actors' soul purpose in this film was just to tell the story and if the characters were too extreme it would distract from that. That may sound like a criticism but I mean it as a compliment, I think it's a rare quality for an actor to be humble enough to take a back seat to the story. I may have said this before but Joseph Gordon-Levitt is vastly becoming my favourite actor and I will see anything with his name attached to it!

The stand-out scene for me has to be the gravity defying fight which takes place in the hotel. I can't find an intellectual way of saying that that scene is freakin' awesome! So that's what I'll say...

Christopher Nolan has again created a multi-faceted film which no doubt will still be being picked apart and analysed for years to come.