Inception: The Windmills of Minds

Lately, I’ve felt like this blog was missing something. Something that makes brains spiral. I couldn’t think of anything more spiral-y than a Christopher Nolan movie.

Every time I decide to watch one, I walk out needing a full mental reboot. Not in a “wow, that was a lot” kind of way, no, more like “don’t talk to me, I need to stare at a wall for a bit.”

The amount of detail, awe, and confusion Nolan packs into two and a half hours is criminal. But maybe… that’s the point.

I decided to review Inception because it was genuinely a special experience. Even though I watched it 15 years after its release, at home, on my living room TV, yet, it still gave me the same sense of intensity I usually feel while watching a Nolan movie in the theatre.

It took Nolan ten years to write Inception. And honestly? You can feel it in every single layered, ticking, collapsing second.

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Film Details

Title: Inception (2010)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action / Psychological Thriller

Runtime: 2h 28m

Rating: PG-13

Brain cells required: All of them. Maybe more.

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Don't think about elephants.

Inception introduces us to a whole new kind of heists. The type of heists that break into people's minds. A sort of subconscious espionage mastered by our lead - Dom Cobb. The “dream stealer”. He had found a loophole in lucid dreams that helped him break into his targets’ minds, walk through their memories, and walk out with secrets no one is supposed to find.

Impressive, isn't it?

But like any other “criminal”, everything comes with a cost. And the cost Cobb had to pay was the weight of his criminal history on his personal life.

Lucky him, Cobb got offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for a new kind of mission: planting an idea into a target’s mind rather than stealing one. A concept known as: Inception.

What follows is a mind-bending spiral through layers of reality and memory. A dream within a dream within a dream. It is bold, dangerous and complex. And when time stretches and gravity loses its grip, only one question keeps echoing:

Who is really in control?

The Dream Team

Cobb assembles a crew to attempt the purportedly impossible task: longtime associate Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), master manipulator Eames (Tom Hardy), chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and “architect” Ariadne (Elliot Page), who is in charge of creating the dreamscapes the team will occupy.

Cool, let’s talk CASTING!

First off, I don’t think anyone could have brought the complex tortured genius personality of Dom Cobb other than Leonardo Dicaprio. Dicaprio mastered “the haunted widower in a Gothic romance” persona which made Cobb the emotional core of the story.

Then there’s Arthur, Cobb’s right-hand man. Dream logistics guy, and basically the brainy calm in the chaos. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gave Arthur the elegant and composed personality of a well-organized binder. He’s cool, collected, and probably has labeled folders for every level of the dream.

Enter Ariadne. Our stand-in as viewers, our architect. Performed by Elliot Page, she asks the questions we’re dying to ask, which makes her presence in the team indispensable. And because Christopher Nolan loves symbolism, she’s named after the Greek goddess of labyrinths and paths. She’s our guide through this mental maze; sharp, observant, and quick to question Cobb’s motives.

That said, I think she deserved more screen time. Ariadne had scene-stealer potential, I would’ve loved to see more of her personality, her past, her development.

Now let's talk about Eames. The dream forger, and arguably the most entertaining member of the team. The comic relief we needed. With his smug one-liners, effortless charm, and ability to shoot and sass at the same time, Tom Hardy gave Eames enough charm to make forgery look like art.

Castles in the air

Alongside the captivating concept, the execution of Inception turns the story into an engineered experience. Every technical aspect used to bring this story to life submerges you deeper in the story.

To begin with, the visuals aren't just stunning, they’re disorienting by design. The camera tilts, spins, folds in on itself; dragging your brain through layers of constructed realities until you're not sure if you're in a dream, or watching one.

Some might argue that the lack of diversity in aspect ratios blurred the line between what’s real and what is dream, but I personally believe that this lack of distinction between the two (or more?) settings was needed. This confusion made the viewing experience richer.

The movie didn’t just stop here, the visual experience was backed up by Hans Zimmer’s captivating score. He didn’t just compose an immersive soundtrack, he also used elements like Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” (which played a pivotal role in the movie) and embedded it in the soundtrack. It’s like Nolan and Zimmer weren’t just making a film, they were performing an inception on us.

One last kick

Despite my admiration for the movie, Inception definitely had its fair share of flaws and plot-holes. And that’s fair, a story as layered as Inception’s is bound to tripping over itself, to have some inconsistencies or even break its OWN rules along the way.

Nevertheless, what truly fascinates me in Inception is how personal interpretation elevates it beyond just a sci-fi thriller. If you let it, the story can morph into something bigger. I can’t help but wonder if Nolan was projecting his own thoughts about the film industry. If you think about it, movies are like dreams. The entire cinema experience is basically an Inception. And on a broader scale, every piece of content we consume plants an idea in your mind, whether we realize it or not.

So back to our initial question: in a world overflowing with stories, screens, content…

Who is REALLY in control?