Inception by Ryan Haberman

Theme and director’s intention

Their (Cobb And Mal) "relationship" is the core of "Inception" and it's clear that Nolan shrewdly used Alfred Hitchcock's woozy, iconic "Veritgo" (1958) - the last word in a man hopelessly stalking a woman - as his template. – BALTAKE

But "Inception" is also a philosophical feat. Inspired special effects advance graduate-school-level ruminations about doubt, certainty, paranoia and trust. And then there is the matter of "cinema" itself. – KENNEDY

Nolan has devoted his extraordinary talents not to some weighty, epic theme or terrific comic idea but to a science-fiction thriller that exploits dreams as a vehicle for doubling and redoubling action sequences. He has been contemplating the movie for ten years, and as movie technology changed he must have realized that he could do more and more complex things. He wound up overcooking the idea. - DENBY

Separate elements and their relationship to the whole

Arcane wordplay is used to explain everything and simply listening to it can lull one into a seductive dreamworld that is not unlike a movie. - BALTAKE

Unlike too many action movies, "Inception" doesn't delight in global destruction. It wields the power of special effects as metaphor. A metropolis folds in on itself like a box. Temblors, explosions, even gunplay signify psychic roiling’s, the giving way of a dream as the dreamers rattle toward consciousness. - KENNEDY

Cobb’s intercranial adventures aren’t like dreams at all—they’re like different kinds of action movies jammed together. Buildings explode or collapse, anonymous goons shoot at the dreammakers. Buñuel silently pushed us into reveries and left us alone to enjoy our wonderment, but Nolan is working on so many levels of representation at once that he has to lay in pages of dialogue just to explain what’s going on. - DENBY

 Objective evaluation of the film

…- "Inception" has something to do with a small band of intellectual adventurers who invade - and often share - the dreams of clients with lofty problems that need to be solved. – BALTAKE

As in many a heist flick, Cobb has an opportunity to get out of the biz if only he and his able crew can pull off one last, high-risk job. – KENNEDY

The outer shell of the story is an elaborate caper. – DENBY

 Subjective evaluation of the film

Structured as a state-of-the-art noir – BALTAKE

"Inception" is a boldly constructed wonder with plenty of — as one character describes it — "paradoxical architecture." – KENNEDY

Nolan has devoted his extraordinary talents not to some weighty, epic theme or terrific comic idea but to a science-fiction thriller that exploits dreams as a vehicle for doubling and redoubling action sequences. – DENBY

 The film’s level of ambition

This most audacious film tackles remarkably serious matters - loss and the fear and sense of exclusion that come with it - and, in the end, despite its willfully confusing vision, "Inception" is astonishingly simple. – BALTAKE

It is a mouth-agape, eyes-wide-open, whip-smart ride. Better, it is an exhilarating essay on the lure, the power, the seductions of cinema. You know: the dream factory. – KENNEDY

Now and then, you may discover that the effort to keep up with the multilevel tumult kills your pleasure in the movie. “Inception” is a stunning-looking film that gets lost in fabulous intricacies, a movie devoted to its own workings and to little else. – DENBY

Words you found interesting:

state-of-the-art-noir, elaborate caper, intercranial,  subtext

Relationship to film movements/genres/ relation to other filmmakers’ work

Their "relationship" is the core of "Inception" and it's clear that Nolan shrewdly used Alfred Hitchcock's woozy, iconic "Veritgo" (1958) - the last word in a man hopelessly stalking a woman - as his template. – BALTAKE

There also are Nolan's clever, gentle winks. While not quite as magical as Fred Astaire's dancing on the walls and ceiling in "Royal Wedding," Arthur's maneuvering of a zero-gravity hallway with time ticking away comes mighty close. – KENNEDY

Dreams, of course, are a fertile subject for moviemakers. Buñuel created dream sequences in the teasing masterpieces “Belle de Jour” (1967) and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” (1972), but he was not making a hundred-and-sixty-million-dollar thriller. He hardly needed to bother with car chases and gun battles; he was free to give his work the peculiar malign intensity of actual dreams. Buñuel was a surrealist— Nolan is a literal-minded man. – DENBY

SOURCES:

Baltake, Joe. “Nolan’s Brilliant Crackpot of a Movie”. Rev. of Inception. Dir. Christopher Nolan. The Passionate Movie Goer. July 18, 2010

Denby, David. “Dream Factory” Rev. of Inception. Dir. Christopher Nolan. The New York Times. July 26, 2010.

Kennedy, Lisa. “Inception. Lights off thrill ride into mind’s amazing movie”. Rev. of Inception. Dir. Christopher Nolan. The Denver Post. July 16, 2010.

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