Summary: Leonardo DiCaprio ("I trust you Jack!" Sorry, I couldn't resist) and company are "dream sharers," invading the dreams of high-powered execs to snatch their secrets. The dream sharers make their victims think the dream is real through an architectural process. There are complex rules when sharing a dream and of course all of the rules are broken, resulting in an imaginative action-thriller drama.\r
Review: Pull out your pen, paper or iPad so you can take notes because Inception is a doozy! This is no fun, summer popcorn flick. Chris Nolan, who directed The Dark Knight and the classic Memento, took a decade to write the screenplay and wants you to think like it’s a do-or-die geometry test. Imagine A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors mixed with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, toss in some implausible word problems, a heap of A-plus special effects and you have Inception. Granted, it’s the type of cinematic experience where you don’t know what will happen next, but that is partly because you didn’t understand what happened before.\r
Inception isn't a bad film; it's just incomprehensible due to a weighty script rather than because it's too "deep." The majority of the film takes place in dreams and as each scene goes by you're in another dream and another dream and another dream --- there are so many dreams within dreams, I thought I might've been dreaming. Films about dreams are always challenging, considering most dreams aren't linear and the creators can go as far as they want, which is clearly what Chris Nolan did. There are subconscious killers, upside-down skylines, Daddy issues, freight trains, corporate drama, military-trained dream protectors and some excellent fighting scenes. Inception needs to be simplified.\r
Thankfully, Inception has some heart. Cobb, DiCaprio's character, is mourning the death of his wife, who lost her life due to dream sharing. Cobb is racked with guilt and trying to capture all of their memories. Since his subconscious is obsessed with his deceased wife, she pops up at every chance possible to kill anyone in sight. Oh, and when you are in a dream within a dream of somebody else’s dream, it's not enough to wake up; you need a "kick" to bounce you out. If you don't get the kick, you could be in dream limbo for decades.  But I digress... DiCaprio's depiction of a grief-stricken, dream-obsessed man is powerful. He puts some soul into a stuffy and serious flick.\r
Visually, Inception is extraordinary, mainly because it isn't packed with CGI but actual, real sets. Nolan put careful consideration into making the dream sequences as fantastical but realistic as possible. Inception is eye-popping, but the storyline is headache-inducing.\r
Inception isn't a bad movie, but I could never sit through it again. It’s up to the viewer to decide whether or not they will ride it out with Prince Valium.\r
Inception is in theaters today.