Dream or Reality?

Tired of waiting for a rainy day and fearful of nighttime crowds, I caught a matinee of the Christopher Nolan - Leonardo DiCaprio movie, Inception. Wow! Let me say that again. Woooow!

Imagine a future where espionage agents are able to enter the dreams of a target and extract bits of information from the subconscious. Take it a step further and imagine not the extraction of information via dreams, but the planting of an idea that eventually tilts the target toward a desired action. This is Inception.

Writer-Director Christopher Nolan drops us into a world where a razor thin line separates dreams from reality, a world where dreams are created layer upon layer, then entered and manipulated by ultra-talented and dangerous spies. But the subconscious is a dangerous terrain where a flicker of thought can crash the dream, and where players can end up comatose in a near permanent limbo. There are mazes within mazes and puzzles double-knotted with complication, and at times you ask yourself if the action is dream or reality. A literal understanding of the full-blown scheme cooked up by Dom (DiCaprio) and his team is out of reach, but somehow Nolan has crafted the story so that we know the what and why of their plan.

Inception is beautiful, chaotic, classy, and image-wise a mind boggling ride. In virtual worlds Parisian streets roll up like carpets, cities collapse, gravity is tamed, and locomotives grind high speed through traffic clogged streets.

If Christopher Nolan’s Batman picture, The Dark Knight gave you a movie thrill, Inception will cover it in aces. See it on the big screen, because a lot will be lost when it filters down to DVD.