By William Marcus.

Inception

Inception arrives, under a shroud of secrecy, through which tantalising glimpses of surreal special effects and high-octane action have leaked through in the trailers.  Its must-see status has been guaranteed given its all-star cast ( headed by Leonardo DiCaprio ) and the pedigree of its director, Christopher Nolan ( whose ‘Dark Knight’ has given him enough directorial clout and carte-blanche to select any project of his choosing, with as little interference as possible from Warner Brothers ).  This, however, does not prepare you for the surprise in store.

‘Inception’ has been inaccurately compared to ‘The Matrix’.  Whilst there are some tenuous comparisons in subject matter, the way Nolan delivers his material is jarringly original and yet in his own inimitable trademark fashion.  This is more like ‘The Matrix’ meets ‘Total Recall’ with a degree in Psychology.  Dense with cognitive ideas and dialogue, this may initially confound people’s expectations.

You may have glimpsed spectacular money-shots within the trailers : Leo and Ellen Page are talking calmly outside a café in real-time, whilst books and crates explode outwards from the stores around them in slow motion;  ahead of them, several blocks of buildings bend and fold over them, forming an inverted canopy in the sky; an ice-bound, mountainside fortress is destroyed; crumbling masonry from devastated skyscrapers slide into stormy seascapes; there are cool, sharp-suited assassins running about with silencers; and two characters fall and float as they fight in a revolving, tumbling corridor.  Superficially, it has reams of action like ‘The Matrix’, which defy gravity, the laws of physics and your own open-mouthed disbelief.  But as impressive as these consummately staged action scenes and effects are, they are secondary to the execution and impact of the story itself.

It’s hard to praise the film’s many merits or even give a summation of the plot, without giving away too much – and to reveal too much will ruin your experience.  It starts off confusingly with Dom Cobb ( DiCaprio ) washed up on a beach, gaining consciousness and being taken to an elderly Japanese businessman.  The action then flicks forward ( or is that backwards in time ? ).  Or is he merely dreaming at this point ? This is the conundrum you have to solve as you watch the movie – you decide !  After being tested by the wealthy Saito ( Ken Watanabe ), Cobb’s services as a high-tech thief are enlisted for some corporate espionage and sabotage.  Renowned for being able to enter people’s dreams to extract information, this unscrupulous tycoon wants Cobb to  destroy his business rival, by implanting an idea in Fischer’s son ( Cillian Murphy ) that will destroy his business empire.  Cobb is lured with the promise of being able to return to the States to see his children and soon assembles a crack-team of operatives : ‘Arthur’ ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ); ‘Eames’, a thief ( Tom Hardy ); and the architect of the manufactured dream, ‘Ariadne’ ( Ellen Page ).  Drugging the unwitting Fischer and entering his dream state, Cobb threatens the mission and the welfare of his team with the memory of his late wife, ‘Mal’ ( played by Marion Cotillard ) – a malignant force that flits through the movie.  And no more will be revealed of the plot !

Nolan can lure in quite a cast list.  His good-luck charm, Michael Caine, gives a guest performance as Cobb’s former professor and father-in-law, at a university in London.  A bloated, greying Tom Berenger plays Browning, a legal advisor to the Fischer family.  And Pete Postlethwaite stars as Fischer’s dying father.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives an impressively effective, yet restrained performance as Dom Cobb.  In his previous roles, he looked like a young man dropped into a role befitting an older, more experienced man and yet he has continually managed to deliver precocious performances.  Again, there are similarities between ‘Shutter Island’ and ‘Inception’, in terms of the characters he plays and the untrustworthy style of narrative structure.  The quality of his superlative performances and his choice of subject material is quite astonishing.  Two such films within a year of each other is quite a boon for his career.

As for Christopher Nolan, it has been said that there are recognisable shades of Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock.  This highfalutin praise seems justified as there is cold, cerebral calculation behind his dense plotting, reminiscent of those masters of audience manipulation.  You don’t know where he is going to lead you next.  You give up trying to follow a logical, chronological train of events.  Indeed, in the middle of the film, there are at least three concurrent tiers of action, overlapping and inter-cutting each other.  Pretentious or audacious ?  You have to admire his trickery, daring and originality.  If you have seen his previous effort, ‘Memento’, where the chronology of events are played out in reverse order, you’ll realize he’s taking his signature technique one stage further.  Not only does he mislead the audience by jumping around with the sequential order of scenes – the effect can be as challenging and frustrating as a Rubik’s Cube – he also inserts flashbacks within the narrative ( he couldn’t  resist  doing this even on ‘Batman Begins’ ).  He also takes liberties with your perceptions of reality and fantasy.  Within the seemingly real, shared dream-states, the main principals seek to delve further within their target’s subconscious to unlock secrets and implant an idea, by taking it to progressive levels : whilst they are dreaming, they start to dream within the dream and so on, reawakening in a new scene.  ‘Extraction’ and ‘inception’ are achieved by going deeper and gaining metaphorical codes to locked vaults.  Also worthy of mention is a small  scene earlier on, where Ariadne drags over two large mirrored doors in a street.  Suddenly, Cobb and Ariadne are caught in the middle of these two facing mirrors and you see the familiar optical trick of a mirror’s reflected image within another  mirror, stretching to infinity.  Was this a precursor of the different dreams within dreams, the different levels ( the scenes which follow ) or the limitless potential of a person’s imagination ? 

But surprisingly, it’s not all cold calculation.  At the core of the story is a very affecting, poignant love story which enriches the film as an all-round crowd-pleaser.  The Hans Zimmer score perfectly accompanies each scene, either heightening the tense urgency of the action scenes or investing the quieter interludes with wistful romanticism.

The film fairly spans the globe, as it was shot in Morocco, Tokyo, Paris, London and  Los Angeles.  The snow-bound scenes shot in the Rockies – where Cobb’s team consists of white smock-suited commandos on snow-bikes, trying to infiltrate and blow-up a mountainside fortress / hospital – is glamorous espionage pilfered from the very best of the James Bond films ( ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ ).  And on the evidence of these scenes, Nolan should be given the reins to the new Bond film, instead of Sam Mendes.

This $170 million mind-bender of a movie is that rare exception – a summer blockbuster with intelligence ( perhaps it is too clever for its own good ).  This is closer in nature to ‘Memento’, as original as ‘The Prestige’, as gripping as ‘Insomnia’ and as mainstream a blockbuster as ‘The Dark Knight’.  Nolan has coated his narrative with layer upon layer of stratagem and misdirection – and you’ll either love him or loathe him for that trick.  But you will want to watch this again – so that you can place all the key cards or scenes in sequential order.  This has only whetted anticipation for his next Batman film.

‘Take a leap of faith’, immerse yourself in Nolan’s dreams and like some of the characters, you will not want to wake up.

By William Marcus.

Toy Story 3

It’s hard to believe that it’s been fifteen years since the first Toy Story.  In a lot of

ways, that ground-breaking digitally animated movie ( based on a simplistic concept – toys coming to life ) was responsible for spawning many imitators, but few equals.  Such was the enduring popularity of these Disney films, that another sequel has been long anticipated.

Just like its predecessor, ‘Toy Story 3’ starts off in an imaginary play world of adventure, set in the old wild west,  where Woody and Jesse are giving chase to Mr and Mrs Potato Head. As Buzz comes in to save the day, it becomes apparent that this is a flashback scene where Andy is playing with his beloved toys, whilst his mother is trying to capture the moment on camcorder.  But things are different in the present day, where Andy is all grown up and ready to leave for high school.  Feeling abandoned, his toys are so desperate to reclaim his attention that they hide and ring his mobile phone in their toy chest.  Despite his mother urging him to sort through and clear out his possessions, Andy still can’t part with his old toys, deciding to relegate them to the attic, except Woody.  But as they are left in a garbage bag, a simple misunderstanding ensues, and the toys flee into a box designated for the Sunny Day Care Nursery.

Arriving there, they believe children will always play with them.  And when those kids grow up, a new batch will arrive.  What seems like paradise turns out to be pandemonium in a great realized scene with the toddlers.  They also meet a rich new assortment of toys, ranging from Big Baby, Sparks, Chunk, and Twitch, to the film’s main villain, Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear ( “ an evil bear who smells of strawberries” – voiced by none other than veteran actor Ned Beatty ).  Could this be the next must-have gift for kids this Christmas ?  This cuddly toy will certainly make its way onto Disney’s merchandising lists.  There’s also another  character, a cuddly hedgehog called Mr. Pricklepants, voiced by a hammy, plummy Timothy Dalton, who makes the most of his few lines of dialogue. 

The animators’ pallets are as richly coloured as ever, the scenes greatly detailed, and the set-pieces are superbly realized ( look out for the scene where the toys are seemingly sent to a garbage compactor and a fiery furnace ).  But it is only mid-way, when the film is injected with its old sly humour.  After Buzz is reprogrammed into believing he is an actual space ranger, he has his default settings switched to a Spanish speaking model.  He is turned into swashbuckling, latino lover who has eyes only for Jesse.  Similarly Barbie gets to meet a vain, narcissistic, ‘70s- style Ken ( voiced by Michael Keaton ), who has quite a camp wardrobe.  In one highlight, he treats her to a funky disco fashion parade, definitely sure to raise a few laughs.

And yes, you’ll probably want to stay to the end, as you get to see extra comedic scenes playing alongside the titles.  You may not be so sure of the preceding experimental, animated short, ‘Day & Night’.  Two blob-like characters, set against a black background, encase day and night-time scenes.  These two characters are polar opposites who antagonise and yet attract each other.  But they momentarily meet each other half-way – at sunset and sunrise – where they exchange scenes and places.  Make of that bizarre message what you will, but the main film that ensues is sure to be another classic in the Disney canon, that will be re-watched and passed down to further younger generations.  Should you go and see it ?  Is it as good as the two previous films ?  Will the kids enjoy it ?  It’s a superfluous, foregone conclusion and you just know that this is going to be a monster of a hit with kids.  Just book well in advance to avoid disappointment.

By William Marcus.