Chris Nolan's Inception: Utterly Mind Blowing

Where do I even begin to write my through-the-roof raving review of Inception without sounding downright obscene?

Christopher Nolan is currently responsible for my multiple mental orgasms. I’ve officially considered this one night at the movies the equivalent of one night of beyond overwhelming sex. And Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy are the perfect people to have at the orgy.

It was raining wildly in Metro Manila while I watched this, the wind was howling and rattling the windows, the man on the radio said not to go out unless you really have to. Nevertheless, I was foolhardy enough to brave it all to make it to the IMAX for the press screening of Inception, which I put on the top of my list of movies I was most excited to see in 2010. I can now say it is the most innovative piece of filmmaking I’ve seen in over ten years.

In a big time film industry up to its neck in franchises, sequels, remakes, formula products—it is makes me so incredibly happy to see a big movie break the mold, take a risk and be original, brave and brilliant. The action in the film takes place in the mind, in the world of dreams, where ideas are planted and the subconscious has the potential to become a volatile playground.

Leonardo Di Caprio is Dom Cobb—a most unusual kind of thief—he enters your dreams and takes your ideas. Now he is faced with the challenge posed by his client Saito (Ken Watanabe): the implanting of an idea in someone’s mind. In this case, it’s heir to an empire Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy.)

Moving through the mindscape requires a team: In addition to Cobb, there’s The Pointman aka the control center played by (Gordon-Levitt), The Architect who designs the “maze” of the dream (Page), and The Forger who takes on various personas in the dreamworld (Hardy).

I already thought Leonardo DiCaprio was thoroughly impressive in Shutter Island but his performance in Inception is downright perfect. It’s as if he made his incredible work with Scorsese in that film look like practice. Yes, he is that good here. I am ready to call him the best actor of his generation. If he were anything shy of perfect then we in the audience wouldn’t take to this magnificent construct of Nolan’s like the proverbial fish to water.

Each role in the ensemble is just absolutely nailed in a rare instance of outstanding cinematic alchemy and thespic clockwork.

Inception is exhilarating, imaginative, thought provoking and utterly mind blowing. I now wonder how long I’ll have to wait before another film and another filmmaker astonishes and thrills me this way. Six stars out of five.

Inception opens today in Metro Manila. Inception: The IMAX Experience screens at MoA.