‘Inception’ Is Mind Game for Moviegoers By Art Byrd

When a film is billed as a psychological thriller, I cringe. At the movies, I don’t want to think, I want to be entertained. During these movies, when I have to think, “Why did they do that? What is going on?” I am lost, then found, then lost again. By the end of the film I feel exhausted and empty.

That’s how I felt with “Inception.” One of the reasons I wanted to see the film is director Christopher Nolan. He is a great director who has helmed “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.”  Nolan has done some interesting films like “Insomnia” and the brilliant “Memento.”

The film has a great cast, starting with Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, as a different kind of thief; he can steal valuable information from a person’s mind while they are in a dream state. Cobb is hired by corporations to get secret information from the minds of competitors -- a sort of mental espionage.

Cobb’s career has cost him his children and his dead wife, Mal, played by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard. He is tormented by what he has lost, especially Mal, who comes back in his dreams with strange homicidal and suicidal tendencies.

Cobb is offered a chance to get his life back by businessman Saito, played by Ken Watanabe (“Batman Begins,” “Last Samurai”). Of course, the “one last job” plot comes into play. It is the most difficult thing to do -- an inception -- putting information for a future act into a person’s mind. The target is Robert Fischer Jr., the son of a dying billionaire, played wonderfully by Cillian Murphy, (“Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight”). Saito wants Fischer Jr. to break up his father’s company once he gains control so Saito can buy it.

Cobb must put together a team to help him place the inception. The team consists of long-time partner and organizer Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Third Rock from the Sun,” “Brick”), a “forger” who can change into things at will; Eames, played by Tom Hardy; and Yusuf, the drug guy who supplies the powerful sedative needed for an inception, played by Dileep Rao (“Drag Me To Hell”).

Rounding out the group is Ariadne, played by Ellen Page (“Juno,” “Hard Candy”), the architect who mentally constructs every street and building in the artificial world to deceive the dreamer.

I don’t want to give too much away, but the special effects with buildings and streets folding are very impressive and help give the film a feeling of an unreal and dream-like state.

I have noticed in many science fiction and “the world is doomed” films, actors explain what is going on, what the threat is and how much trouble they are really in. This happened in “Inception,” but it was too much information. I was totally confused. Still, the ending was good.

I didn’t like the film because it was over two hours of trying to work a puzzle. When the movie was over, I still had lots of puzzle pieces on the table.

Edited by Michele Ristich Gatts