Inception

Here's a thing. This is one of those films that it's maybe best not to know too
much about before you go in. So, in a way, I don't want to review it, I just
want to tell you to go and see it. If that's good enough for you, z out of here
now, and go see it.

If you're still with me, I'll have a crack at recommending it without going
into too much detail.

It is the near future, much like our own era, but for the fact that among other
techs, there is a tech which allows people to share dreams. Leonardo DiCaprio
is a thief who is the acknowledged master in the field of stealing information
from people's heads by using this tech to enter into a dream with them. He is
hired by Ken Watanbe, a powerful corporate type to perform an inception. An
inception is a difficult process whereby you introduce an idea into someone's
head, thinking that it's their own. Cillian Murphy is a guy whose dad controls
a company that's on the verge of a world energy monopoly, and who stands to
inherit. They want him to break up the business empire when he does. The
problem is, inceptions are thought to be impossible. Only DiCaprio reckons it
can be done, and for the price on offer, is willing to try.

For this purpose he recruits an Ocean's Eleven style band of master
dreamthieves, including a young girl prodigy new to the whole experience, to
break into Cillian Murphy's mind and convince him that he's decided to do this.
Complicating the matter is the fact that DiCaprio is Fucked Up, With Issues,
and these Issues bleed into the dreams sabotaging stuff.

So, on the one hand, this is a sort of cross between a crime caper movie and
eXistenZ, and on the other, its a bit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

It's directed by Memento director Christopher Nolan. Which is technically the
same guy as The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, but it's the former guy
we're mostly discussing here. In that it's got all that good, chinstroky "what
the hell is going on here" stuff, alongside a pretty taut action thriller.

Talent wise, you've got all the support you need, with Joseph Gorden-Levitt,
Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Pete Postlethwaite, and so forth, all
doing what they do best, with all the material they need to do it with.

If I have one criticism for the film, and really, I *don't*, it's that it makes
up some rules for itself about how dreams work which a) I'm not sure make any
sense, and b) they then maybe don't actually obey. On the other hand, maybe
they do, and it's me that needs to see it a couple more times.

I will be seeing it a couple more times.