Christopher Nolan’s Bond Moment? Inception
Watching Inception at the Prince Charles Cinema, I’m reflecting on how Bondian it is, but also the sheer genius of the creativity and cinematography pouring out of this movie. And the score!!!
Firstly, he assembles great actors and gets them giving their 110%. In a science fictionist not-too-far from now future - the ability to create dreams, plant thoughts inside those dreams, raid people’s subconsciousness (handily in the form of a safe near a beach) and engage in intellectual espionage is big business. Which is what Dom Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are about with Salto (Ken Watanabe), only he’s onto them and has a scheme of his own — to influence the future business strategy of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy).
Thrown into the mix is Cobb’s grief and guilt over the death of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) and his role in it. She’s dead, but as a distorted memory keeps intruding, destructively, into the dreams — and Cobb is losing control of his emotions. But he’s told no-one of this. Arthur expresses concern, particularly as Mal in real life was lovely. This vicious version of her isn’t her and he has some awareness of what Cobb is going through. Cobb tries and fails to keep everything bottled up — but like a train, Mal keeps on coming back.
In true heist movie fashion, they assemble a team to initiate the con — Elliot Page as Ariadne, the lost princess of the Minotaur labyrinth is a genius at dream architecture. She also realises that Cobb is delving into his memories to keep Mal alive, and how dangerous his blurring dreams and memories is, as what he knows Mal knows and can be used in her interventions into the dreams. Cobb longs to go home to his children, who also keep cropping up at unexpected moments. Then there are the totems (weighted small objects to bring the dreamers back to reality) and dreams within dreams within dreams, where if you die, you can get lost in limbo — forever.
In Oscar Wilde fashion, a chemist is brought on board — Dileep Rao (Yusuf), who creates the compounds that will create the third dream state and who gets to drive the van! Also along for the ride are Michael Caine! as Cobb’s father-in-law, Stephen Miles, and a professor; an unrecognisable Tom Hardy who as a master forger and disguiser Eames provides some comic relief, gets some great action sequences — and gets to play suave and urbane. Gosh, even Pete Postlethwaite is here as Fischer’s dying and harsh father, Lukas Haas as Nash, a dream architect who gets dragged off to who knows what fate by Salto’s henchmen — and Tom Berenger as Fischer Jr’s mentor, trusted godfather and fellow board executive, Pete Browning.
And then I don’t know how he does it — as everything was done for real, no 3D animation, virtual production boards or green screening. It’s jaw dropping that the effects were made with sets and cameras — and no-one died. I just don’t know how he does it! The Parisian city scape flips up on itself and life carries on; a Bondian attack on a snowy base explodes impressively; cafe society blows into smithereens; Arthur fights in a gravity-less hotel corridor and blows up a lift to jolt the dreamers awake. It’s all incredible, as is the disintegrating dream world created by the Cobbs. The vision and originality of Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas’s production is off the scale.
But why is this Nolan’s Bond moment. There’s a terrific tense pursuit scene through Mombasa and one very concerned cafe owner; a casino sequence; a glamourous woman (Talulah Riley’s tricky ‘Blonde’ at an equally glamourous hotels; planes, trains and automobiles; an attack on a snowy base; and a lot of really good suits, especially on Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There’s cross and double cross — and triple cross, and the apprehension of how much Fischer knows (and his jumpy subconscious projections) throughout. And fighting without gravity?!!
Overall, this really is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s movie as he gets to play comic foil, concerned friend, serious on a mission researcher, action hero, with a hint of romance. Tom Hardy gets to do action, duplicity and caring as he leaves a wounded Salto to protect Fischer. The depth is incredible — I’m not sure we ever get to see Mal as she really was, being just a projection — but the tragedy and ruthlessness Marion Cotillard is tremendous.
We also end up feeling compassion for Fischer as he’s bamboozled and confused by being kidnapped and pushed for information he doesn’t have; then convinced that he is in a dream in a hotel sequence, and needs to end the dream by cracking his father’s last will and testament out of a safe in a heavily guarded base. We also wonder what will happen next as the idea to break up his father’s business empire is planted into his dreams and he’s manipulated into doing what Salto wants. Though on paper Fischer is quite a thin part, Cillian Murphy brings so much to it, in his emotional reactions, facial expressions and reactions.
At the end we’ve left wondering — is this a dream or is this just fantasy? More than a heist movie or a futuristic dream-stealing action movie, we think about love, grief, loss, letting go, forgiveness, betrayal and friendship along the way.
For further reading o the making of the film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception#Further_reading
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