Sweet Dreams are Made of This

Time to wake up, Mr. Cobb

The other night I dreamt that I was at Madison Square Garden attending a Coldplay (?!) concert. I found myself in line at a concession stand buying a hero. The total came to something like $18.25 (without a drink or fries!) and I gave the cashier a twenty. She told me that she didn’t have any change, so I started to take my order and head off. Then it struck me that on second thought I should just stick around until she served enough customers to get my dollar and change I was still owed. She didn’t take too kindly to this and became progressively more irritated as I kept hanging around. Of course I became more exasperated because I couldn’t understand her aggravation with me. I was owed the money after all. At some point I just decided to cut my losses and walk away before I missed any more of the beatific crooning of Chris Martin. Troubling stuff.

I only mention this to bring up a point about dreams: they can oftentimes be prosaic, comprised of the most banal details. Dreams don't have to be weird (although the more pedestrian the dream, the more perplexed I am by it). An obvious point no doubt, but I raise it because one of the bigger criticisms of Christopher Nolan's new film, Inception, is that he just doesn't get dreams. Sure he can explain concepts like dream-state temporal compression and the logistics of "inception", but he doesn't get that like dreams are strange, man.

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I think the films detractors would have loved to see this material in the hands of say a David Lynch, Terry Gilliam or even David Cronenberg: all directors who embrace the fantastic, illogical and downright creepy aspects of the world both in and out of dreams. Nolan is too much of a structuralist to allow his dreamscapes to get messy. He's not one to color outside the lines. Some have a problem with that and to be fair it's completely understandable.  Yet that strikes me as an argument that refuses to address the film on its own terms.

I don’t think Nolan set out to make a treatise on the metaphysics of dreams or a meditation about the nature of reality. The film lacks enough ambiguous space for that to happen. More likely he endeavored to make a mature high-concept action film with some radical visuals. Nolan, best known for shepherding the triumphant revival of the Batman franchise is one of the most respected commercial directors working. His films are rigorously plotted and demand the viewers full attention. In short, he makes entertainment for grown-ups. Inception, harks back to the days when movies like Total Recall, Robocop and Aliens were standard summer fare. These were all smart action films that didn't pander to the lowest common denominator in order to inflate box office receipts. Sitting in a screening of Transformers 2, I had doubts whether such films would ever exist again in the mainstream.  I'm grateful that Inception even exists to be honest.

At its core, Inception is a heist film with a sci-fi skin graft. To compound the conceit, the object of value isn't being stolen, but implanted deep inside the mark's subconscious. If I were sitting in a bar and someone described Inception's plot, I'd probably be telling them how brilliant they were. As far as high-concepts go, this definitely gets an “A” for effort. I applaud the studio for having the stones to put a couple hundred million dollars behind Nolan's vision. Even with DiCaprio starring, on paper it doesn't exactly scream box office smash.  Nolan's ambition is unassailable.  It’s the execution where one finds room to quibble.

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The film spends an inordinate amount of time setting up the third act. I can't say I was ever bored, but it raises the ante for the resolution of the main subplot, a subplot that doesn't have enough emotional resonance for the audience to be truly invested. That wasn't much of an issue for me, because I enjoyed spending time with Nolan's characters despite their lack of depth.  They reminded me of a more brainy and serious version of the Ocean 11's crew.  One thing I'm starting to notice about Nolan's characters through all his work is that there is a "what you see is what you get"-quality that has started to become problematic.  Ambiguity in a character creates space for tension.  Inception would have been greatly enhanced if the characters were a bit tougher to read.

Another gripe is that Nolan could have employed the soundtrack more judiciously. The score, constantly welling up in the background, doesn’t seem to complement the on-screen action so much as attempt to engineer an emotional response from the audience. Music pretty much always works this way in film, but when it’s as blatant as it is in Inception, it translates to flop sweat. It's as if the director doesn’t trust that his material is strong enough to stand alone. There is one clever little bit with respect to the music which involves Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien" and a portentous music cue that wells up occasionally throughout the film.  Nolan is a clever little devil, I'll give him that.

Nolan approaches his material deathly serious. This has been great for the Batman films since they had veered beyond the point of self-parody under Schumacher.  Still, I feel a bit of levity would have gone a long way in Inception.  The few moments we do get make the team feel more realized and less like vessels for Nolan's intricate plot.  Also I wish he’d cast someone else in the lead. DiCaprio is a decent enough actor given the right role (I found him pretty convincing in The Departed). Here he’s supposed to be conveying a man who’s been left debilitated by loss, emotionally compromised, a man who no longer trusts himself but still tries to project confidence and control. I think a Clive Owen or Ralph Fiennes, even Colin Farrell would have been more suited for such a part. DiCaprio is thirty-five, but his face still has a callowness that betrays any attempt at evincing the world-weariness that the story calls for. He just comes across as deeply annoyed or at best aloof most times. That said, he's not shabby in the role; he's just miscast.

The rest of the cast includes a couple of Nolan regulars, Michael Caine and Cilian Murphy. Murphy does great work here as the ambivalent scion of a dying energy magnate. His character's denouement ends up being the most effective in the film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the guy who everybody should be hailing as the next great actor of his generation, does quality work here as DiCaprio's right-hand man.  Tom Hardy finds room to give his character a bit of soul despite being saddled with as much expository dialogue as anyone else.  Nolan knows how to cast a film.  It's just that the film ends up feeling less than the sum of its parts.

I don't want to sound as if I didn't like the film.  I thoroughly enjoyed it actually.  I'd rank it between The Prestige and The Dark Knight.  It's not the mind-f##% the first trailers seemed to promise, but it is a mature action film that takes great pains to respect its audience.  There's no shame in that.