Inception

rating: ****

You can certainly call Inception a dream project. The idea of a team “extracting” secrets from the deep recesses of your mind as you sleep,or planting ideas in your mind (“inception”) through dreams; of “architects” building a subconscious world that is really a maze leading you where the “extractors” want you to go; of getting stuck in “limbo” and growing old in a dream; of carrying totems to keep a grip on reality; and to have in the middle of it all an unfinished love story involving a tortured DiCaprio — where else can it all have originated but in a dream?

It isn’t an easy task. Imagine navigating the world of your own dreams,and how disoriented it can leave you. Here Christopher Nolan is navigating the dreams of several,starting with his own. That means dealing with one person’s nightmares,another’s memories and the third’s subconscious,with the planes of consciousness rapidly shifting.

DiCaprio is Cobb,on the run and doing odd jobs for corporates by manipulating the dreams of their rivals. He and his team,including the dependable Arthur (Levitt),are hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe) to go one step further and do the rarely exercised “inception”,to convince a competitor’s heir to break up his father’s business empire. Saito hooks Cobb by promising to facilitate his return to the US,to his kids,if he pulls it off.

One of Cobb’s first recruits is Ariadne (Page),the “architect” who would conjure up a dream world where they would lure the heir. What Cobb leaves out,and Ariadne gradually discovers,is that he is having his own dream problems,as his wife (Cotillard) finds her way into his mind to thwart his best-laid plans. This part is the most fascinating of Inception,where Ariadne,Cobb — and so Nolan — spell out their audacious plan. Cobb explains the creation of dream worlds,about “projecting” yourself in them because a dreamer never remembers how it all started,about how time moves faster in a dream and even how it could all end badly. Then suddenly,in a classic dream-like motion,the buildings in front of them start to rise and tilt,so that the entire street is upside down.

And then Nolan lets the big guns out. Strangely and disappointingly,Inception goes on to roll out gadgetry of all kinds. This appears completely unnecessary for the simple reason that you know all of it is unreal. There are car chases,sledge chases,lift crashes,blasts and endless shootouts. Perhaps this is driven by the plain and simple reality of giving the audience the satisfaction of big-screen special effects — particularly one unbound by any limitations of natural laws. However,even when the plot seems dangerously unwieldy,Nolan always,always finds a way to take us through. Plus,clearly,Nolan’s leap of faith — a favourite expression in the film — has opened a whole new world. As Cobb says,“The most resilient parasite in the world is an idea. Once planted in the mind,it sits there.” Nolan may have planted one such idea.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com