Three words. RUN DON’T WALK.
Yes I said it, run, don’t walk to see Inception, the new Christopher Nolan movie. It opened on Friday July 16 and is probably one of the very very best movies I have ever [yes EVER] seen.
It’s a mindbending, espionage-laced thrill ride through the dream-state. It will cause you to question the movie, the characters and your very own “dream-state”.
The special effects are AUTHENTIC, old-school Hollywood [think scale hallways that turn 180 degrees 8 times per minute and tilting rooms on giant hydraulic lifts] since Nolan really dislikes the overuse of CGI in newer action/adventure/thriller movies. The acting is exceptional. The screenplay though provoking and original. The cinematography breathtaking. The film concept massive and layered and executed brilliantly. It is Nolan’s finest work.
To say I’m a fan is an understatement. I have been for years and even more so since the Dark Knight and Heath Ledger’s award-winning Joker performance.
The thing that strikes me about this film though is not just the look and atmosphere of it, or even the thinking person’s concept of reality vs. the dream-state, but it’s the emotional thread that is picked up and held, tightly, throughout what for all intents and purposes is an action/thriller. That is very unusual. An emotional thread in any action movie is startling, much less having that thread ultimately be the catalyst and literal string that binds the entire movie together. It is almost unheard of! and that it was executed so beautifully, thoughtfully and successfully is gratifying and a pleasure to see.
An interesting point about casting is that Nolan tends to work with not only the same CREWS and PRODUCTION company in all his movies [his team is one of the best in the business by all accounts], but he also works with the same actors over and over, much like Tim Burton. Case in point – Cillian Murphy was in Memento, Batman, Dark Knight and Michael Caine was in both Batman/Dark Knight movies and the Prestige; seems to beg the question: If the next villian in the Batman/Dark Knight saga is to be the Riddler, has he [Nolan] been hazing Joseph Gordon-Levitt for that role? Rumor has him as a candidate for the part for a while now, along with Johnny Depp and a few others; however, having just finished Inception with Nolan, JGL seems to have the inside track on the part. Hmmm… if history is to reveal anything, I would put my money of JGL as the Riddler in the next Batman installment.
Christopher Nolan is surely one of the best, if not THE best, directors of his era and with this opus of a movie, he has proved his chops once again. And proved it with gusto and incredible vision. Bravo… Bring on the next installment of the Dark Knight, we can hardly wait.
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