Inception - complicating ambition

Watched Inception last night.

Yet, a tad later than others in catching this highly rated thriller movie of the moment. The IT show. Blame it on the slowness of foreign movie screenings in this gigantic country.

Highly rated and raved. Many of my peers in Singapore found it both thrilling and intriguing. “Hard to grasp all of the show” was the common phrase. And yes, I had to agree with that, but from a different angle. When the film went rolling to the snow-covered landscape, aka the third layer of dreams, I was also falling into sedation, or else termed the land of boredom.

Though not exactly a novel theme, the opening of Inception was interesting, intriguing enough to keep one’s apt attention on the subsequent developments. The crisp and razor-sharp jigsaw pieces blowing out from the architecturally realistic dreams were quite breathtaking and lingered in the mind for some time.

Nevertheless, as with most ambitious creators, Inception attempted another step further, deeper into the mysterious world of dreams, a dream within yet another two dreams. On paper, this might have read like a real thriller, gluing the readers’ eyes to the pages. However, on screen, it pans out quickly into a weak and forced extension of the first two layers of dreams. Apart from a different landscape, and more powerful cinematic effects, the plot and want for this layer does not seem to be strongly warranted for or essential to the development of the movie.

Inception has some good ideas budding from the age-old beauty of dreams and its veil of mystery and decent acting from its cast. If it was somehow simpler in its ambitions, it would have made for a stronger movie.