Inception: A poor man’s review

Like everyone else, I recently saw “Inception.” Overall, a great movie. No doubt. It’s really like a 4-dimensional jigsaw puzzle that director Christopher Nolan expects you to piece together after going to watch his film a second or even third time. I will have to say that I’m a huge Nolan, Leo, and Cotillard fan (who isn’t?). That said, though I’m really glad I saw the movie and will probably see it again, the hype around it seems — at least to me — more steeped in the fact that movie releases these days pretty much suck, rather than this being a movie event that changes things. The acting in “Inception” was really good. Check! The visuals were also dazzling and intriguing. Check! The dialog in some parts was interesting, but in most, it was a bit forced. The greatest contribution in my mind is the idea of considering dreams within dreams, something I’ve never experienced — or recall experiencing. So, Nolan uses his medium to take us there. I thank him for that. (I also thank him for casting Cotillard, again!) The other contribution I enjoyed is exploring the way in which we come to believe what we believe. How do ideas get planted in our brains? Sometimes we think we came up with an idea, but did we? I had a boss 5 years ago who was a master at crafting business ideas and slowly releasing them in conversation such that I was tricked into believing something was my idea. Once I believed something was “my idea,” my motivation and intensity to see it through ramped up. Though Nolan explored this explicitly and without subtlety, I still found it a worthwhile endeavor. Yet, after Heath Ledger’s depiction of The Joker in “The Dark Knight,” I’m personally still waiting for the final piece in the Batman trilogy.