Sunday, July 18, 2010

Is There Any Way Out of this Dream?


I think it is safe to say that one viewing of Inception is not enough to capture the essence, let alone the complete storyline, of the movie.

Visually stunning and seemingly (at first) non-linear story telling, it took a while to get into the rhythm of the film. Notice I didn't say it was "well-acted".

It is not poorly acted by any means, but it's not hard to believe that the story and visuals put the craft of acting in third place. I've never been a huge DiCaprio fan in the first place, but I will give him this - in one of his last scenes, he actually pulls off.....emotion. And Ellen Page can pull off more than Juno. The guy from 3rd Rock from the Sun wasn't bad, but you could see his role might as well be played by anyone. Ditto with Tom Berenger's role - whom I didn't even know it was him until two-thirds of the movie was over. I guess that's what 80 extra pounds and grey hair will get ya......oh and 18 years between movies.

I really liked Ken Wantanabe and Tom Hardy though.

The story is pretty complex and very detailed - hence the possibility for multiple viewings. From the word 'go' you seem a little lost until you kind of end up assuming everyone in the theater is in the same boat. I found the same thing with the Matrix and you will see where the similarities do not end there. But I wouldn't call it a copy cat movie by any means. You also start to catch on, but it's a lot of work.

We didn't see it in IMAX, but I could see where it would totally be worth the extra money to see it in that format. I don't think that IMAX for regular movies is the same that are made especially for the IMAX medium, but you have to believe they could do some cool stuff with the visuals to keep you more than engaged.

Speaking of - evacuate your bowels before you go in. Seriously. This is not a movie you can take a bio-break and expect not to miss something that is integral to the storyline. I held off as long as I could and sprinted to and from the urinal. You can't expect your movie buddy to catch you up when you come back - it's too complex to do it easily without missing something else.....oh and the music is kind of loud.

....but the music is really good in the film. Co-written (with Hans Zimmer - I'm assuming he's Scottish!) and guitar played by Johnny Marr (of the Smiths, Electronic, Modest Mouse, etc fame), it really helps make the movie.

So we're at movie #4 for the year. Still behind in 'the goal', but I'm seeing a bunch of stuff out there that might catch us up. We'll see.

Anyway, it was a great way to spend a 95 degree day in a/c.....which we do not have at home.


Song by: Crystal Gayle & Tom Waits

2 comments:

Birdie said...

Just got home from the IMAX showing. My review: WHOA. Yes, it's worth multiple viewings. The plot took precedence over effects, and that's saying something. Not a lot of opportunities for nuance in the acting, but it wasn't a problem in this case.

rebecca said...

Ken Wattanabee is ALWAYS good.