Dreams have long been used in film to allow directors to play with the unreal, present visually stunning scenes and explore character motivation based on flashes into their subconscious mind. With “Inception,” dreams take center stage as the vehicle upon which the plot, characters and entertainment depend.
Director (and writer in this case) Christopher Nolan, of “The Dark Knight” and “Memento” fame, introduces the audience to a world of corporate crime that involves skilled players dropping into the minds of wealthy businessmen to steal their most protected secrets. It sounds involved, and it is in theory, but “Inception” offers movie-goers a mix of entertaining options without requiring them to think too much. Viewers can enjoy the cinematic beauty of the film, analyze what is dream and what is reality, or simply get lost in the fast-paced action sequences that are reminiscent of a James Bond flick. (And the formula seems to work: “Inception” to date has raked in some $251+ million worldwide since opening July 16, 2010.)
To start, “Inception” asks viewers to suspend reality themselves and believe that invading people’s minds while they sleep for the purposes of stealing their most secret thoughts is a known practice and even a lucrative profession for some, such as Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb. The practice is so common that businessmen with a lot on their mind actually pay experts to help them counteract such an attack with their own subconscious security teams. Using a series of needles, tubes and perfected sleep aids, these sleep thieves can get in and out of a person’s mind without seeming to leave a trace of their crime.
