|
What are you doing Friday night? This Friday night, the 16th July 2010. Like last Sunday around 7.30pm when London came as close as it ever has to really resembling 28 Days Later, the 16th might be a good day to get your Christmas shopping. Inception is that good. Whatever the awe of Avatar it still smacked slightly of FernGully: The Last Rainforest. A near future sci-fi espionage adventure that delves into the grey matter and taps into its power so well it may have even finally convinced this old puppet, light and shadow boy of the merits of special effects. Vanilla sky, The Matrix, Ronin, The Bourne Identities and yes The Dark Night combined. Director Christopher Nolan has deployed the thrill and intelligence of these movies into a 21st Century action heist story. Leonardo DiCaprio's Dom Cobb is an 'extractor' for hire stealing secrets from businessmen’s sub-conscious via their dreams and industrialist (Ken Watanabe) takes him on for a final job. Simple enough? A smart smoke and mirrors promotion campaign by Warner Brothers meant most of us were still in the dark about the threats, goals and motivations of the protagonist, the plot shrouded in mystery - and it is best not to know, I didn't and it was a hell of a ride. However, it is the power of the sub-conscious in all its dark, menacing, destructiveness that weaves the thread of what proves in the end to be a sort of Die Hard "one last job" routine. Lead DiCaprio assembles his crack team of geeks and musclemen for the final con that will send him home to his family. Other usual suspects include the femme fatale, the young impressionable 'Neo', the mark and old mentor - it takes nothing away. Despite the classic set up the characters are not one-dimensional and there is no slick, too-cool-for-school bullcrap dialog masquerading as wit (The Real Hustle, Oceans 12). Originality and expansion is at the heart of what is a true summer blockbuster. Nolan's The Prestige and Batman outings have mastered the art of layering, building a story arc to a crescendo and leaving the viewer gob smacked. Inception does not wear these skills out, the rising orchestral violins and whispering plot developments are still there but the power of the idea and the 'dream' is mesmerising as the chase and action careers out of control and the layers collapse under the sheer weight of suspense. DiCaprio is quickly turning into Robert De Niro and this film is a real development for the actor who once played the Man in the Iron Mask. His role is not all consuming. Sidekick geek, Third Rock From the Sun's Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who would rather be known for his part in Brick, fixer and tough guy Tom Hardy, Juno's 'dream architect' Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy as the target, billionaire heir Robert Fischer, do plenty to keep you guessing and divide your attentions from Leo and the mental graphics. A rare treat. For every ten Jennifer Aniston romcoms there now seems to be two Nolan's around the corner. An intelligent Hollywood blockbuster of a mind puzzle wrapped in an enigma that I still have not fully figured out. See you in the queue Friday.
|
