Inception: The Not-so-bitter Red Pill

In Chris Nolan‘s films, we get the nagging feeling that there is some kind of deep meaning, but the director does all he can to obscure it. With his least annoying title so far, Inception, he comes into terms with the fact that he can’t overstep himself and plays to his strengths inside his limits. No more illusions of touching Kubrick, Orson Welles or Fritz Lang.

By throwing around random heady ideas at the viewer, he makes fun of people who try to decipher films deductively. Cue the breathless editing, the whys and the hows, the perpetual darkness, the boring clean dreams, the hysterical ridiculousness of it all. He even makes one half-successful attempt at a joke – his career’s first – so cute!

In the end, Nolan anticipates some people will be ecstatic and other will hate it, winking at us with the mysterious final shot. The irony here is that a concept film provides a fast-paced spectacular fun ride and this is the only hard fact, i.e. “reality level”. The rest is up to you.

Thanks to @eesn for recommending.