Inception: "We're Gonna Have to Watch That Again"

Last summer, I heard a slew of reactions to Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending blockbuster Inception, most of them positive. Amidst all the praise, one “voice” particularly stood out to me: that of LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof. Two months after the controversial finale of his epic series, he was lighting up Twitter with his fanboyish ramblings, of which my favorite was this: “I wish that someone would break into my dreams and give me an idea HALF as good as INCEPTION.” No doubt there are many LOST fans who wish for the same thing – along with a time machine to furnish a more satisfying ending.

While I was one of the few LOSTies I know who pretty much got the finale I was hoping for, I both appreciated Damon’s self-deprecation and figured that was a pretty good endorsement of the movie. Having seen it now, I can understand why the guy responsible for my all-time favorite show connected with the film so strongly. One thread involves the resolution of deep-seated Daddy Issues, another the importance of “letting go”. A majority of the movie takes place during a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. And boy, does it leave you scratching your head and saying, like John Locke in the scene quoted in the Addicted to LOST Superbowl commercial, “We’re gonna have to watch that again.”

I watched it again. The first time around it made some sense to me at times, but just as often I was hopelessly disoriented. But the second time around, it just clicked. I understood much better what precisely was going on in this strange world in which it is possible to break into someone else’s consciousness and manipulate his or her mind. I found it much easier to follow, and beyond baffling, I concluded that the film was quite brilliant. But I also felt like you’d have to be something of a genius to totally get it on the first viewing.

Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, who specializes in extracting valuable information from poorly protected minds. It’s strange, wondrous and dangerous work, and it’s especially treacherous for him because of the personal issues plaguing his subconscious, manifested in the form of a beautiful but crazed woman named Mal (Marion Cotillard). Cobb has delved deeper into his own mind than anyone ever has, which makes him the best at what he does but also a liability. He needs a fresh new face to help him with his latest mission, an all-important job whose success could grant him the one thing he wants most in the world. This vital team member will design the dreams in which the work will be done. The opportunities for creativity are limitless, but closely mirroring reality is a must if they are to have time to complete their task before the artifice crumbles around them.

What Cobb needs is an architect, and he finds the perfect candidate in Ariadne (Ellen Page), a talented, spirited young woman who comes to understand the demons that drive him better than anyone else, even his longtime colleague Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Having only seen Page in Juno before, I was struck by the difference in her here. There’s still a youthful naivety about her, but this is a more mature character, and even as she’s faced with a fantastical situation, she catches on quickly, delighting in pushing the boundaries of her new artistic range. Also in on this great task, which must be accomplished during a single flight, are Eames (Tom Hardy), a tough intelligence expert; Yusuf (Dileep Rao), who specializes in sedation; and Saito (Ken Watanabe), the Japanese businessman funding this project. The task: to manipulate Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the young heir to a vast fortune, into breaking up his father’s properties so that his company will not control the majority of the world’s energy.

“Robert Fischer,” my dad commented when the character was introduced. “Like Bobby Fischer.” I don’t know if that was a deliberate nod or not, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the film intentionally alluded to one of the greatest chess players the world has known. Ariadne fashions a pawn for herself as a totem to help her keep track of her reality, so it wouldn’t be the only chess reference. This is a complex game that Cobb and his comrades are playing, a game of the mind in which every move is strategically planned and crucially important.

It’s a curious concept, since this is a movie packed with action, yet almost all of it happens while the characters are calmly sleeping. What does it matter if disaster befalls them within the dream? All they need to do is wake up. Actually, the film raises the stakes by making the matter more complicated than that, with heavy sedation posing a threat to the consciousness of each dreamer if he or she should fail to survive within the dream. Still, it’s odd to see all of this play out while realizing that it will have no impact upon the real world, unless it is in the form of an idea that develops within an unsuspecting mind and changes real-life actions. For all the car chases, gun battles and other harrowing situations, all that truly matters is planting that idea. Everything else is set-up.

As a Star Trek fan, I found myself reminded of both the original series episode Shore Leave, in which the thoughts of crew members spring to illusory reality on a mysterious planet, and the Holodeck in the Next Generation, which allows crew to construct their own virtual playgrounds and populate them however they wish. The special effects are amazing, with things occurring in this dreamscape that never could exist in real life. It’s certainly a feast for the eyes. And it is perilous. Far more than any threat of violence, the characters face the possibility of losing track of what is real and what isn’t, and that danger preoccupies this movie, with Cobb particularly susceptible to doubts about whether the dream is real and whether reality is a dream.

The acting is impressive overall, with Page and Watanabe making a particular impact on me. But it’s the dizzying structure of the movie, its intriguing discussion of the nature of dreams and the arresting visuals that really make the film a standout. I’m glad I watched it twice, and it makes me suspect that I should revisit other movies I didn’t quite get the first time around. Maybe it just takes a little extra mulling for it to sink in. Inception is a deeply puzzling movie, but it’s a puzzle worth trying to solve.

Father and Son Explore the Grid Together in TRON: Legacy

When it comes to appreciation of geeky 1980s movies, I generally think I have my bases covered pretty well. As buzz for Disney’s TRON: Legacy began to build, however, I had to admit that this was a movie with which I was almost entirely unfamiliar. So I saw the original in anticipation of the sequel. I confess that I found the 1982 movie a bit disorienting, but there were aspects of it that I really enjoyed, and because I watched that first, I think I was better able to appreciate the new movie.

TRON: Legacy stars the little-known Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn, the 27-year-old son of Kevin, the computer genius who created the video game and traveled inside it during the first movie. He’s an aimless hothead, but he’s really a softie, and underneath a veil of cynicism is a kid who never quite gave up hope that his beloved dad, who went missing two decades earlier, might still be out there and still be thinking of him. The story in this second movie is about a lot of things: idealism, loyalty, cooperation, wisdom. It’s about the value and danger in trying to build a perfect world. But mostly, it’s about a father and son, long separated, reuniting in time to share a dream both had long believed impossible.

I’m a sucker for stories about father-son relationships, so I had a hunch that this movie would resonate with me on that level. It did, and it made me smile to see that Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, two of the main writers on the daddy issues-laden LOST, worked on the screenplay. Jeff Bridges, who starred in the original movie and who I’m really coming to admire as an actor, takes on an intriguing dual role here.

As in the first movie, there are Users and Programs, and in some cases, we have two complementary characters. Here, Bridges plays both Kevin Flynn, the grizzled sage who has mostly lived a life of quiet meditation since becoming trapped in the world of the Grid 20 years ago, and Clu, the well-groomed, much younger-looking, sinister program who Kevin designed to help him create his virtual utopia. He doesn’t have the same aura of menace about him that David Warner does in the first movie, but there’s something equally unsettling about him. He looks familiar and friendly but has a dark purpose, the true extent of which is known only to him. The two characters act and look so different that if the movie itself didn’t keep bringing it up, it might be easy to forget that they are the same person.

Hedlund makes a pretty appealing main character, and I love his scenes with Bridges as the senior Flynn, but it was Olivia Wilde who really made an impression upon me as Quorra, Kevin’s longtime companion and apostle of sorts. Wide-eyed and beautiful, Quorra is naïve, compassionate and eager to learn more about the world from which the Flynns came. Among the secondary players, it was nice to see Bruce Boxleitner again playing Flynn’s old friend Alan Bradley. In the real world, he and Sam share some nice, quiet scenes that remind me of the relationship between Harry Potter and Remus Lupin, his parents’ school chum and his favorite Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

A scruffy-looking Cillian Murphy puts in a brief appearance as the soft-spoken son of the first movie’s big baddie, Ed Dillinger. I thought that he would play a bigger role in the movie, but he’s just in one scene as an indication that Flynn’s company is falling into villainous hands – or at least greedy hands. Ed Jr. doesn’t really seem evil to me, just very turned off by the idea of giving something away for free, which Kevin Flynn had no qualms with. In the digital world, I found Michael Sheen so colorful as flamboyant club owner Castor that I could have sworn he was dressed in a peacock’s array of colors instead of just white. Any time he is on the screen, he demands complete attention.

I heard a lot of complaints about the movie’s plot, but it worked for me, and I think a great effort was made to beef up the exposition so that the audience didn’t feel as confused as the main character. I wouldn’t say that watching the first movie is essential to enjoying this one, but I think your appreciation of it will be a bit deeper if you do, and you’ll pick up on fun references. Of course, if you’re going just to get a visual spectacle, I don’t think that you’ll be disappointed in any event.

The Grid is a very distinct place, very technological, with an oppressive atmosphere of swirling black clouds that reminded me of The Dark Knight. In contrast to all that darkness are the stark, luminous patterns on the vehicles, clothing and architecture. In general, white lights signify virtue, while orange is vice. Unfortunately, we see a lot more orange than white. Still, there is a certain harsh beauty to it, and I often found myself thinking of Star Wars, with light cycles battling it out instead of X-wings and characters slashing each other with discs instead of light sabers in the deadliest twist on Frisbee imaginable. Those discs didn’t make too much of an impression on me in the first movie, but they’re all-important here, both as weapons and information storage units; Flynn’s contains the key to the Grid, and as such, it is deeply coveted by his nefarious doppelganger.

Although all the dreariness of the Grid got to me, making me feel a bit claustrophobic, I rarely had the sense of vertigo I got with the first movie, even watching it in 3D (which I don’t really think adds much to the experience). I didn’t like the score, which mostly consisted of low droning, but it fit the tone of the movie, which is a mere PG but feels darker. It really isn’t; there’s very little profanity, and what violence we see is just in the form of characters pixelating away into nothing, so it’s certainly not graphic. But the system of the Grid feels very fascist, and there’s a message in there somewhere about the danger of trying to keep things too uniform. Younger kids may find it a bit too heavy; it could have used a little more humor, and I confess that I rather hoped Sam would wind up bringing his dog into the Grid with him. That could’ve been fun. Still, on the whole, TRON: Legacy is quite enjoyable, both eye-catching and touching, and it was a great way to wrap up my 2010 movie-going.