After a showing of Inception, at least half the audience leaves the theater feeling bewildered. Not that the plot twists are impossible to follow, if you aren’t distracted by your girlfriend and popcorn. But it’s clear that the creators spent $160 million (plus another $100 million in advertising) to make a movie that is intentionally perplexing. The main problem with reviewing Hollywood blockbusters is that they seem irrelevant compared to the films’ looming budgets. Inception, Avatar, Clash of the Titans and other Hollywood blockbusters rely on the adrenalin rush they give to audiences: even if you fail to grasp the point of catharsis in the character development of Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) or if you’ve forgotten exactly which layer of the dream world the heroes are on at the moment, you still get your fair share of thrills and chills from the mass destruction and sublime love.
Amazingly enough, Christopher Nolan’s film actually manages to capture the zeitgeist. Humanity has been keenly aware of the relativity that defines human life ever since the time of Albert Einstein (or perhaps Prince Hamlet). This cultural category has been one of the most popular in the realm hovering between mainstream and underground throughout the second half of the 20th century. The magical realism of Julio Cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez was destined to invade the film industry, where it culminated in The Matrix and other movies in which the heroes are forced to constantly question reality (Vanilla Sky is with the film most closely related to Inception in my mind). The relativity of truth has become a part of the mainstream, like post-nuclear dystopias and space odysseys, largely thanks to Nolan. The dream theme is always a winner, even if it is rather hackneyed by now, and Inception offers a profoundly original treatment of the theme – at least by Hollywood standards. The absence of pseudo-Freudian dream interpretations in the film is especially welcome. In short, Inception is a skillful blend of time-tested themes and devices.
Among the stylistic merits of Inception is Nolan’s choice to shoot it on a good old 35 mm camera, though the movie would have grossed even more with a 70 mm. But then, the realist’s ideals take precedence over profit. As for visual effects, they are not conceptually original either. The novelty of the plot makes them striking, however. The characters freely travel through all four dimensions and create their own reality in a dream they all share – all with the hallmarks of your classic American blockbuster: nonstop shootouts that the good guys make it through unscathed, car chases through cities, slow motion action sequences, etc. But to its credit, the film is one of the few action movies in which the effects are not superfluous thrills but are intricately related to the plot dynamics and the underlying idea.
But every proper Hollywood movie needs at least one completely original shtick. Cobb and his team enter the dreamscape with the help of a device in a nickel-plated suitcase they always have with them. The descent into the dream world begins with an intravenous injection. The allusion to heroin addiction is clear. For instance, when the team recruits the architecture student Ariadne to construct dreamscapes, the girl rushes off in horror after her first experience but comes back soon enough to experience new horizons…or something like that. Those who indulge in the drug-induced dreamscapes are no longer able to dream without it. The theme of drug addiction, even if metaphorical, has become a trend of the cinematic mainstream.
RIA Novosti
