4 stars: The Dream is Real

What is a dream? Is a dream fragmented memories from your life that appear in a disjointed sequences of events or is a dream things you have done over the course of day or things you have seen that are lumped together to create a strange and at sometimes puzzling  world that springs forth from the inner most reassesses of the human mind. Some will tell you the answer to why we dream and others will say that we dream because it is how our minds are constructed to keep us active even when we sleep, (at least that is how I see it). The truth is that we as an advanced race will never truly know the reasons for dreams. The Human mind is the most complex and powerful thing we as humans posses and our ability to dream gives us something much more than just to keep our minds active it is a way for us to draw inspiration and to recover memories that we thought were long gone. Christopher Nolan(director of Memento, Batman Begins and  The Dark Knight) gives us a glimpse at the power of the mind the wonders of dream and a story that is as complex as the dream world it weaves a crime that does not take place someplace a place where the mind is the scene of the crime.

Over the course of 11 years, Christopher Nolan has become one of modern cinemas greatest directors delivering one amazing film after another after another after another, Nolan has achieved a certain level of success at such a young age that is only matched by one other legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Nolan's films are as complex as the next he never strays from focusing on the events of the story or the characters as they shift through theses dark and at sometimes lurid sequences of events that befall them. That is his style and that is the reasons I love his movies there is so much to them not just what is on the surfaces but what is beneath the surfaces the deep rooted anxiety of theses characters. There dark painful pasts, the non linear story telling that is almost ever present in all of his films   his latest endeavor, "Inception" is no exception. "inception" is a twist a minute, mind bending  brain teaser it is the rare kind of summer blockbuster that thrills you while at the same time making you think about the boundless possibilities that the dream world that our minds create. The only other movie, actually I should say movies, I have ever seen that posses such powerful questions  are "The Matrix"(1999) and "Vanilla Sky"(2001) although "Vanilla Sky" is far more like "Inception than "The Matrix" they both are up there as two of the most mind bending Science Fiction films I have ever seen. Both films using the ideas of reality to further along there sometimes-confusing plot and "Inception" has one hell of a perplexing plot. This  kind of movie is a thinking persons movie someone who has the attention span to keep there focus  pinned on Nolan's bleak and stark vision of a dark visually stunning dream world that is amazingly not to different from our own. I know there will be people walking into this movie expecting a run of the mill action thriller that is just covered up by a premise that takes place in the dream world, they will sadly  walk out upset that they did not get the mindless action that they expected or even wanted. A more perceptive experienced moviegoer will know what to expect from this twisty Nolan film and if you know that, you can never predict how it will end or what will happen then you have all they need to watch this brilliant piece of filmmaking.

"Inception"  took me by surprise I expected this film to be something similar to "The Matrix"  and yet I  got something far more complex and daring  a wholly original and   jarring Sci-Fi Noir that boldly puts itself out there  and challenges the horrendous summer blockbusters by doing what they failed to do. Deliver a solid and thrilling piece of entertainment that surpasses anything that mainstream Hollywood has put out in the recent months. Nolan not only blows away the competition he crushes it leaving nothing but rubble of the films that should have been winner but instead were failures. "Inception" is one of the best if not the best film of the summer and one of the films of the year. 

Leonardo DiCaprio has turned in some powerful and risky performances in his career from "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?” (1993) to "The Aviator"(2004) DiCaprio has proved he is one of Hollywood's greatest talents and now he is taking on a role much suited to his style. In "Inception" DiCaprio is cool, calm and collective as  Dom Cobb  the head of a team of  dream thieves who have entered the mind of a lucrative business man to not steal an idea but to plant one a very dangerous feat that has been named Inception. DiCaprio is in command in all his scenes and never falters not even for a second in this tou-de-force performance in one of the best films of the year and the new decade. DiCaprio is not a conventional actor and he will never succumb to the big action thrillers  that have been coming  out in theses recent years  and he never will that is what makes DiCaprio such a great actor and that is what makes his performance in this film something to see. The  rest of the cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page and Michael Caine and  Pete Postlethwaite with Lukas Haas all  turn in phenomenal performances  in this film that proves to be far more than it appears.   

"Inception" is going to keep people guessing and talking about it for week’s maybe even years to come this film is complexly woven and daringly told that even if you do not completely understand it moviegoers will be enthralled by every single minute of this unique Science Fiction thriller. That proves there is far more to the mind than we could ever know Nolan brings to life what most  people would never have figured could be put on the screen, the world of the dreams.