I hesitate to add my little voice to the worldwide clamour that Christopher Nolan's Inception has generated (with all the hype, I didn't even want to see the film until at least two years had elapsed), but here's a stray thought about the ending. (Spoiler alert etc)
With reference to the teasing final shot, if we assume that the spinning top eventually falls over (and I propose it does), that apparently makes for a nice, heartwarming finish, with Dom Cobb cleared of murder charges and reunited with his kids. But is it really so sweet and fulfilling? Are we supposed to overlook the little fact that this fond daddy has spent the movie's climactic scene having an intense, expository conversation with a long-dead woman who exists nowhere other than in his warped mind? (The main reason she no longer exists? He drove her to her death - in the real world - by planting a bad idea in her head, after spending 50 dream-years with her in a manufactured dream-world.) Dementia is a laughably weak word for this condition, and I wonder what those two children will grow up to be under his loving, droopy-eyed care.
In most other respects, of course, the film is moderately good.
thank God, finally, someone is not going gung-ho about this movie. while the technology is awesome (remember where the buildings were folding over and both Cobb and the architect had to just stop for a second to take the path and walked upside down?), the music is great and the acting is alright; this movie left with so many questions. I so agree with you!
ReplyDeleteWe share the same sentiment, Jai..I haven't yet watched the movie despite being bombarded by friends and alike to watch it (rather not watched because of this incessant praise)and not too sure if I will watch it in the near future..
ReplyDeleteI was sincerely hoping that either you or Baradwaj Rangan would put in your views on this..Any chances of a review here?
sharbori21: well, the post was mainly written in a flippant vein. But generally speaking: I can't remember the last time I really, really enjoyed a film that was the subject of enormous, overblown hype right from its, well, inception. Peter Jackson's The Return of the King probably came closest, but even in that case I grew to really love the film only when I saw it again a few years after its release. Had mixed feelings about it the first time.
ReplyDeleteI liked a lot of Inception, but I have no real desire to see it a second time (as many viewers apparently do). What it did make me want to do is to revisit a few films that are its thematic and visual cousins - among them Spielberg's Minority Report, Tarsem Singh's superb The Cell and Nolan's own Memento.
E Pradeep: no review, sorry - I prefer to avoid writing about new films that have already launched a million words of analysis, unless I really feel I have a fresh insight to offer (or a trivial little observation, such as the one in this post).
ReplyDeleteheh.heh.heh.absolutely love your take on the ending:)
ReplyDeleteThe movie was timepass but not a teenyweeny bit as complex as the hype made it out to be. And what little complexity there was, was effectively ruined with all the lectures to each other about how it all works. Heh, about the demented cobb. does the top have to keel over, though, for it to prove it's reality and not a dream? wouldn't just the wobble indicate that? i never did get, though, why it would keep spinning in a dream - it's not like other laws of physics are suspended in the dream - they feel pain, they fell jerks, gravity does exist (when cobb needs someone to weight down the chair when he rappels down the bldg). Duh, only. I was impressed, though, that he could spend 50 years in a place populated with just him and his wife, and still adore her. I doubt I'd feel the same about any loved one after that much stir-crazy time. And how come he doesn't remember her as an old old lady? After 50 years of limbobliss?
ReplyDeleteI have difficulties explaining to people why I do not like to watch much hyped movies...It is conforting to know I'm not alone. By the way, I watched Titanic about 4 years after all the hoo-haa. How much I enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteDuh, only. I was impressed, though, that he could spend 50 years in a place populated with just him and his wife, and still adore her.
ReplyDeleteRadhika: I thought about that too, but I figured it had more to do with an unhealthy addiction to living in a dream-world where you're completely in control, seduced by the architecture etc. But that theory doesn't tie in with the sentimental note at the end where he tells his wife (or rather himself) "But we did grow old together."
Interesting thoughts penned down by you, on the multi-layered "Inception". Nolan has been serving up complex lead charecters who are actually slaves of their pasts and has been effective in giving audiences something unusual in case different sounds cliched.
ReplyDeleteYour take is valid and original, but yes that actually doesnt take away the credit from Nolan's film which has managed to score big with the audience. It does have a Scorsesee kinda end where you can have possibilities of more than one ends.
>>an unhealthy addiction to living in a dream-world
ReplyDeleteI thought that that theme was sadly not explored enough in the movie. When they go to that opium-den-like dream cellar, where all those men are hooked up, I thought, "aah, now it gets interesting, this will explore how the possibility of dreaming like this affects a culture". Instead, it looked like this was a techno fix introduced with little or no impact. I was reminded of "House on the Strand", one of Du Maurier's best, I believe - where the hero gets more and more hooked onto his alterego in the "dream" and gets detached from reality, to the point of ruining his life. In Inception, sadly, there was such a limited focus to using the dreams, that the larger impact on society was ignored. I would hazard a society like that would see signs of decay, with people more keen on dreaming than on living life, creating, building things - and again, the backlash of that, with it becoming contrabad, like all opiates.
Heh, but that is probably fodder for another, real sci-fi movie, as opposed to a caper movie which has a more limited and superficial objective, almost video-game like in its treatment.
Going back to Limbo - I found it interesting that Mr and Mrs Cobb didn't want anyone else around to share it with them - they just played out repressed architectural fantasies - rather a bleak way to spend 50 years.
Sandeep: while I was somewhat underwhelmed by Nolan's last two films (probably a direct result of the huge hype surrounding them), there's no question in my mind that he's one of the most interesting big-budget directors around today. He has a quality that most of my favourite filmmakers share: the constant, almost obsessive reworking of particular themes, motifs and imagery across a range of movies. One can see a clear line connecting Inception with Memento and The Prestige as well as the Batman films (didn't the brooding young heir in this film remind anyone of Bruce Wayne as played by Christian Bale?).
ReplyDeleteRadhika: generally speaking, as a film that evokes the mood and texture of a dream-world, this fell short for me; other films have done that much better. Possibly Nolan was more interested in the destination than in the actual journey. Incidentally that opium-den scene reminded me of the famous last scene with Robert De Niro in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Jim Emerson (one of my favourite movie writers) has a good piece here about the film's concept of dreams as "architectural labyrinths - stable and persistent science-fiction action-movie sets that can be blown up with explosives or shaken with earthquake-like tremors, but that are firmly resistant to shifting or morphing into anything else".
ReplyDeleteI am not as worried about the fate of the kids as I am about there being a sequel to explain how the ending tied up so neatly for Cobb (if in fact the top kept spinning). Chris Nolan doesn’t usually have ‘everyone-ends-up-happy’ type of endings.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a doubt that I have: his wife wasn’t convinced she was in the real world, so couldn’t he have just spun the top to show her that it stopped spinning? Or am I not understanding that bit correctly?
Overall, I thought it was excellent, but I can live with seeing it only once in the hall.
…didn't the brooding young heir in this film remind anyone of Bruce Wayne as played by Christian Bale?).
Totally. It was only when my sister recognized him as Scarecrow of the Batman movies that I had to get it out of my mind that he was Christian Bale.
An interesting take on the ending, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI found the movie to be quite interesting, I mean when you compare it with most summer releases on must admit, Inception at least had an interesting premise and was imaginatively picturised especially as Nolan intercut between three levels of dreamscapes as the movie rode on to its finish. It was wordy to a fault and in a sense antiseptic, but definitely not boring. It was definitely overhyped, but if you caught this on a lazy sunday evening unawares...maybe it would've been a different viewing experience.
Also, Radhika, I do not think it was Nolan's intention at all to provide a treatise on effects of shared dreaming on a culture, why should he. He used the conceit of shared dreaming to tell a story about one man's journey. And the totem spinning in the dream has been 'explained' in the 'lectures'.
Cheers,
Rahul
You worry too much.
ReplyDeleteAnd you must be the only person to call Leonardo droopy-eyed.
Well most of the charecters in Nolans films carry a pshychological (read)Guilt baggage with them which hound them in the present, Thats a signature/ hallmark of most his films is'nt it. I really admire Nolan for redefining Batman from the usually cartaturish figure seen in his earlier films to this more or less believable mordern "Dark Knight". His films are a guilty pleasure, I thoroughly enjoy as it engages the audioences to participate and think...
ReplyDeleteBTW Gargi: "didn't the brooding young heir in this film remind anyone of Bruce Wayne as played by Christian Bale?)." This was a similarity between the characters in the films, the actor who played Scarecrow(Batman Begins) was Cillian Murphy (who gets to play a Bruce Waynish characther) and not Chirstian Bale!!
Sandeep: I think you've misunderstood Gargi's comment (which in any case was a response to what I said about the heir reminding me of Bruce Wayne). No one said anything about Scarecrow being played by Christian Bale.
ReplyDeleteAgree about the guilt baggage in Nolan's films (including the underrated Insomnia), and like I said in an earlier comment I find him a very interesting director for the way he reworks themes and visual motifs. But I have to say I was underwhelmed by The Dark Knight - thought it was self-conscious and often pretentious, and geared towards the sort of viewer who wants to be able to see a Batman film that has the stamp of "respectability" on it. Personally I preferred Tim Burton's Batman Returns.
>>Also, Radhika, I do not think it was Nolan's intention at all to provide a treatise on effects of shared dreaming on a culture, why should he.
ReplyDeleteRahul - I am sure it wasn't his intention, and for that matter, there is no "should do" for any film-maker - it's just my own feeling that the social ambience of that world would have seemed more real if the ripple effects of such a technological possibility had been fleshed out more - as it stood, it was just an invention inserted into a familiar society, with near-zero impact on the world.
Thanks for the Jim Emerson link! The article puts into words exactly what I felt after watching the movie. I was prepared to be overwhelmed but the movie left no impact. Nolan just didn't go far enough, and with a subject like this he could've gone pretty far.He's talking about dreams here...and some seriously crazy things happen in dreams. wish he had explored that a bit.
ReplyDeleteWell you are the first voice of dissension that I am hearing on Inception :)
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am truly wary of of over hyped movies because they never live up to their expectations ( I never liked Titanic or Avatar - maybe I am not a Cameron fan!). However,when I go and watch a movie like Inception I generally have a ground rule that I will believe in the premise set up by the director for those 2 hours. It is after all a work of fiction ! So I am not disappointed by the science of this movie as a lot of people are, now that I am reading other reviews. But I do expect the movie to be true to the premise its setting up. And I was a little annoyed with the some logical flaws , especially with the totem and how the whole "kick" thing worked for multiple levels in different and convenient ways. I liked the whole guilt trip - it makes the story more human. But this story was so much more about the mind and its inner workings and the toying of that that the last 20 minutes of subconscious army action sequences was totally unnecessary. Thats probably the only thing that I did not like about the movie. Again, nice to read your perspective
Well you are the first voice of dissension that I am hearing on Inception :)
ReplyDeleteVipula: no major dissension here actually. As I said in the post and the comments, I liked the film overall (without thinking it was one of the greatest movies ever made). And I know of quite a few people - well-known critics among them - who didn't like it much, and who have written eloquently about why they didn't like it. Like the Jim Emerson link I provided further up.
The army action sequences gave me a headache too!
I never thought about this angle. But I disagree with you in the fact that movie is just okay. I believed that it is the best movie to come out this year.
ReplyDeleteI believed that it is the best movie to come out this year.
ReplyDeleteKris Bass: well, that makes you and around 90 percent of the moviegoing public, right? :) But do try and read some of the good negative criticism of the film, by people like Emerson and Stephanie Zacharek - not to change your mind or anything, just to be exposed to a different perspective. It's always useful.
(Sidenote: always a bit surprised by the casual use of "I believe it is the best movie to come out this year", as if the speaker has watched every single film made across the world and arrived at a considered opinion.)
Hilarious take on the ending.
ReplyDeleteAbout the ending, leaving the interpretation upto the viewer \ reader is a very commonly used device. Sometimes it comes off very well ( Like in Bergmann movies) and sometimes it just looks like the creator is being hesitant and tentative and took the easy way out. Just like a twist in the end does not necessarily make the story good.
:)I wrote a post on Inception earlier today on my recently-started blog. I had a take on the ending too:)
ReplyDeletehttp://42ing.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/thoughts-on-inception/
Films by Burton/Shumacher/Nolan for that matter Batman films have one novelty or X-factor that are the villans!! I hope u agree. But I still think that "Arnie" was miscast as freeze, hw was really funny in the role. Well I some how prefer the Joel Shumacher directed "Batman Forever" majorly due to the ENIGMA aka The Riddler character. But I would vouch that Heath Ledger as "the Joker" is probably one of the best amongst the lot!!
ReplyDeleteSandeep: just clarifying that in my earlier comment to you I was talking about Batman Returns, the second film in the original series. The one with Mr Freeze (Batman & Robin?) was plain terrible and gave me one of the worst headaches I've ever had in a movie hall. I think I liked Batman Forever too.
ReplyDeleteBet nobody thought about the kids' future angle!! I went to the movie with great expections too, with a dream within dream tagline from everyone. But then it worked on the same premise like the Matrix, to which the director has agreed he was inspired. As a person who has studied psychology and was impressed by the concept of lucid dreaming (except the falls into bathtub and water gushes into the building parallel,)there was still a lot that could be done, also considering he spent 8 years working on the final script.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with Jim Emerson on the subject of The Dark Knight. Though, I guess he went a bit overboard on TDK:)
ReplyDeleteAnd, btw, I still havent watched Inception! I know that it would be disappointing!:D