Inception (M)

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan

BY MARGARET AGNEW

This film gave me a bit of a headache, but oddly, not in a bad way. It was from concentrating so hard not to miss anything while trying to take it all in.

Despite my momentarily sore head, I urge you to go see this year's first (and possibly only) thinking-person's action blockbuster.

An oft-repeated phrase in the mind-blowing film Inception is "a dream within a dream'', but what we have here is actually a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream within a ... well, you get where I'm going.

This film has more layers than a slice of mille feuille. Science-fiction flicks often get a hard rap, but here, hopefully, we have a sci-fi film that will get its proper dues come awards season. The characters, despite being set in a fantasy fictional world (or several worlds), are very real and almost as layered as the mind-twisting plot.

French actress Marion Cotillard (Oscar-winner for La Vie En Rose) does a terrific job as Mal, the unattainable love object of Dominick Cob (Leonardo DiCaprio). The deeply unhappy Cob is a man whose job is to invade  your dreams and steal your best-kept secrets, for a price.

Along with his crack team, which includes a mature Joseph Gordon-Levitt (so different from his hopeless romantic in 500 Days of Summer) as Arthur "the point man'' and a surprisingly suave Tom Hardy (so brutally good in Bronson, and tapped to be the next Mad Max) as Eames "the forger'', Cob has been hired by phenomenally wealthy Japanese businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) to do the opposite of their usual dream work.

Saito wants an insidious idea planted in the mind of a business rival, something that he would think was his own idea. As that unwitting business rival, even Cillian Murphy's character is interesting far more sympathetic than you'd expect for a heist victim.

Murphy's fellow Batman alumni, Michael Caine, plays Cob's father, who finds him a keen young student to be his "architect''. This architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page) is assigned to create labyrinthine dream worlds for Cob and his team to use as they steal people's deepest secrets, or in this case, plant an idea. Ken Watanabe is as interesting to watch as usual, but his sometimes impenetrable accent means we lose some of the dialogue; annoying in a film that demands full attention.

Other cast members in the impressive lineup include a barely recognisable Tom Berenger and Pete Postlethwaite in essentially a cameo. The film is well paced, although people expecting Matrix-type shoot-em-up bombast may find it a bit slow at first. There are some mind-blowing special effects that, despite their obvious surrealism, never fail to convince.

There is a brilliant zero-gravity fight scene that really should be recreated and put on YouTube by the next astronauts to head to the space station. That scene alone would be worth the ticket price, but there's much, much more.

Design-wise, Inception is stylish, without being covered in black vinyl or futuristic fripperies. The costumes are well tailored and fairly timeless, which cleverly makes it difficult to place the era.

While this film shares some similarities with DiCaprio's last film, Shutter Island, where reality was an equally fluid concept and his character was guilt-stricken over his wife, Inception has a far more original, unpredictable concept that takes everything several notches higher.

Without giving anything away, Inception also has the best ending I've seen in many years.

It will have you debating long after you leave the cinema. This is one of those rare films that demands to be seen more than once and on the biggest screen you can find.

- © Fairfax NZ News