Inception, the latest film byChristopher Nolan (The DarkKnight), goes on and on like that.DiCaprio plays Cobb as a noirish private dream detective, a spy for hire in themore infernal regions of corporate espionage. His job is to steal secrets by enteringand manipulating the dreams of his targetsuntil Saito makes him an offer hecan’t refuse. The tycoon will fix the legal problems that prevent Cobb fromreturning to Americaif the nocturnal sleuth successfully plants destructive ideas in the dreams ofhis rival at a British corporation vying for control of the global energymarket.
Itsounds fascinating, and yet it’s not. The logic of dreams Nolan tries toreplicate by jumping between scenes and settings would benefit from moresurrealism and less computer-generated pyrotechnics. And since, like a mediocresci-fi flick, Inception insists onexplaining every step by reference to convoluted science cooked up for theoccasion, much of it between Cobb and his youthful new sidekick with the mythicname of Ariadne (Ellen Page), it’s little wonder that the movie drags along fornearly two-and-a-half hours. In TheMatrix, probably an inspiration for Inception,the necessary explanatory words clocked by at turbo speed, seamlesslyintegrated into the action. And the stakes were much higher in The Matrix, which questioned the natureof reality itself. By contrast, Inceptionis more of a quasi-intellectual puzzle without much heart or soul.
Aperformance as wildly over the top as Heath Ledger’s in The Dark Knight could have elevated Inception. DiCaprio’s protagonist manages only to look like amorose gumshoe on an assignment he wished would soon end.
