4/5
(15+) US. Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
Director Christopher Nolan throws a perfect storm of stunts, effects, locations and actors at one big idea: that it’s possible to pilfer ideas from dreams by a process called ‘extraction’, which involves hooking yourself up to a drip, falling asleep and entering the world of the subconscious. The Holy Grail of this process is to reverse it, which is ‘inception’, the planting of a new idea in another’s mind. That’s the trick that experts Dom (DiCaprio) and Arthur (Levitt) try to pull off.
All hail Nolan for mastering a higher class of mass entertainment. Like all good science fiction, Inception demands we pay serious attention to pure fantasy on the back of strong ideas – but it also combines fantasy with real observations about our sleeping lives. Like a dream, Nolan’s film fades in the light – but while it lasts, it feels like there’s nothing more important to decipher.
