INCEPTION

Science fiction

F.Y.I.
An extractor: someone who can enter into other people’s dreams
An inception: the implantation of an idea deep in someone’s subconscious
Two-dream layers: people dream that they’re dreaming
Three-dream layers: a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Leonardo DiCaprio: Dominic "Dom" Cobb, an extractor
Ken Watanabe: Saito, CEO of a Japanese energy company
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Dom’s longtime associate Arthur
Marion Cotillard: Dom’s wife Mallorie "Mal" Cobb
Michael Caine: Miles, college professor and Dom’s father-in-law
Ellen Page: Ariadne, a brilliant young architect
Tom Hardy: Eames, a forger
Dileep Rao: Yusuf, a chemical genius
Cillian Murphy: Robert Fischer, Jr., heir to a business empire
Pete Postlethwaite: Robert’s ailing father Maurice
Tom Berenger: Maurice’s right hand man Browning

REVIEW
Too long (2½ hours), too confusing (at least for me) and too repetitive (car chases and gun battles go on forever).

Blurring the lines between reality and fantasy is a mainstay of science-fiction movies but sometimes they can go too far with it. Such is the case with this one: after a while it all becomes too much to keep track of what we are seeing.

Consequently about the midpoint I’d given up any hope of ever figuring it out so I occupied myself watching the movie's astonishing special effects and looking for Nitpicks, of which there are quite a few.

CLASSIFICATION
for sequences of violence and action throughout.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• Cobb’s gun is slid across the conference table with the handle away from him but when he later grabs it he is able to shoot the gun without first having to twist it around.
• In the first car chase the grill of the yellow cab gets smashed in pretty badly. But in the next scene the grill is mostly intact and stays that way until the cab drives into the warehouse once more with a badly damaged grill.
• Like the other passengers Arthur puts on headphones when he enters the white van. During its fall from the bridge he no longer has them on until it enters the water and they reappear.
• A car explodes in a big fireball outside the Paris café followed by a lot of debris then another big explosion, this time with the same car that has already been blown to bits as well as others.
• While lying down after being shot Saito’s shirt is unbuttoned at the top and you can see the white sticky tape and part of his blood pack on his chest to create the illusion of being wounded.
• As Arthur helps the team members to the elevator the green EXIT sign is backwards.
• Arthur enters hotel room 491 and says it is directly below room 528. No where have I ever seen room numbers assigned in that manner.
• Arthur and Cobb leave their Tokyo hotel room and go up the stairs to the roof. It is clearly night-time as they get in the helicopter but in the next scene when it flies off it is mid-day.
• While Saito and Cobb are in another helicopter it is raining against the window behind them but seconds later when they are about to take off there is no rain to be seen anywhere.
• The Immigration Officer stamps Cobb’s passport after examining it. Passports of US Citizens returning from abroad are not stamped by US Immigration.