Inception (In theaters) - Dir. Christopher Nolan. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Paige, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
A William Gibson-esque high-concept sci-fi thriller from the writer/director of Memento and the good Batman movies. Inception-sorry, I N C E P T I ON-is set in a world where technology has been developed to allow entrance into the dreams of other people. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a dream thief who specializes in industrial espionage-literally stealing secrets from the minds of his targets.That's as much as anyone needs to know going into the movie. Inception is complex, filled with ambiguities and apparent contradictions that will keep people arguing for years. But its great achievement is in making that complexity accessible to audiences. Catching a latecomer up on the whirlwind of foreign concepts-multiple dream levels, "kicks," "totems," and psychological limbo-in place by the third act would be a challenge to do in words, but for an audience member it's all made remarkably clear. Where a notoriously dense sci-fi film such as Primer is virtually impossible to understand in a single viewing, the plot of Inception-or at least, the most straightforward interpretation-can be picked up easily.
Like in Memento, Nolan plays with this film's narrative style to put the audience in the proper state of mind. Transitions between locations are sudden and disorienting, like a dream. Characters show up in unexpected places to defend against faceless enemies.
The human drama at the film's center, which involves the slightly-loony Cobb battling with the spectre of his even loonier former wife, is compelling. And my fears that the movie was building towards a cheap, Shyamalanish twist ending were proved unfounded when it ended on a much more appropriate ambiguous note.
Whatever flaws the film might have are minor and expected for the genre. Cobb is the only character who gets any development. With the exception of one scene that plays with gravity, the movie doesn't take much advantage of the limitless scenarios made possible by its premise. And a few concepts are explained just well enough to serve the plot, but not enough to fill in the plot holes that follow-although there is enough ambiguity to suggest these might have been deliberate. Setting most of your story in a dream is convenient that way.
Rated PG-13 for simulated violence against imaginary persons.
4.5 out of 5
Date Night (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. Shawn Levy. Starring Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg.
Soulless "couples" comedy written and directed by focus groups.
Steve Carell and Tina Fey are the Fosters, a suburban New Jersey couple who have lost the spark in their marriage to the demands of their children and careers. Out on a date night in New York City one evening, they are mistaken for another couple, and through a series of increasingly poor judgment calls find themselves caught up in a wacky adventure.
The script, with its straight-laced lead characters, its never-too-threatening gangster villains, and its hesitant pushing of boundaries broken decades ago, feels like nothing so much as a transplant from the late 1980s: something that would have starred two forgotten C-list comedy actors. The movie is never quite funny, never edgy, never romantic or heartwarming-never much of anything.
It at least brings along Carell and Fey, but even they have no hope of breathing life into this dead world. Picture two talented comedians who have had their personalities surgically removed then replaced with artificial versions by comedy-writing robots. This is Date Night.
It's difficult to imagine what demographic the film might appeal to. Human beings with souls will wither away in the face of its its dull, wretched characters and triple-recycled plot. The conservative suburban soccer moms and pops for whom the film was presumably made will be offended by its raunchy humor and naughty language.
Rated PG-13 for Marky Mark's nipples.2 out of 5
