Inception’s concept deliciously original. Dreams, in film, are often seen as weak plot devices (i.e. it was all just a dream), unless they are used well. Director/writer/producer Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) creates a unique world where people move back and forth between reality and other people’s dreams.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dom Cobb, a thief and architect who is able to enter the mind of another person in order to extract information. Cobb and his team are hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe) and though they impress him when they infiltrate his dreams, he insists that Cobb finds a better team to work with. Cobb goes to his father’s classroom and enlists the help of his brightest architecture student, Ariadne (Ellen Page) to build the dream worlds Cobb and the rest of the team will enter.

This film requires you to pay attention (at all times!) or you can get lost in the folds of the complex storylines!

Nolan does a fantastic job weaving together an imaginary world with reality and back again, leaving the audience to figure out what just happened and which is the true reality. Cinematographer Wally Pfister (Dark Knight) again shows his skill and talent, allowing the visuals to pick up where the story leaves off.

The cast is stunning, with stellar performances from Marion Cotillard as Mal, Cobb’s wife, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb’s trusted partner and Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer Jr., whose mind they need to enter. Murphy is a true talent, dissolving into every character he plays so that all that is on screen is that character. Fischer is a sympathetic character, caught up in Cobb’s manipulative tactics and Nolan leaves the audience to wonder whether it is right or wrong to access his dreams. There is no real hero in Inception, which makes it that much more interesting.
The weakest link is actually DiCaprio and not because his performance isn’t strong, but because he’s played characters too similar in Shutter Island and Revolutionary Road. It would be different if the three films were not consecutive, but they have been and it’s almost the same ”broken down man in a bad marriage” character in each one.

Another issue with the film is Ellen Page. She is OK as Ariadne – a name way too on the nose for anyone familiar with Greek mythology – but Nolan isn’t great at writing female characters, so Page did the best she could with what she had to work with. Rachel is so weak in his Batman franchise that she could be replaced and played by two mediocre actresses. Ariadne and Mal are slight improvements, but not by much. Both are fairly one dimensional. Nolan would benefit from having a writer skilled in female character development come in on his next project.

Still, they’re minor beefs and all-in-all, Inception is one of the most original and captivating films you’re likely to see this year.