RELEASED: 16th July 2010

DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan

CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Talulah Riley

BUDGET: $160m

BOX OFFICE WORLDWIDE: $825.5m

AWARDS: 4 Academy Awards (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects) and 3 BAFTAs (Best Production Design, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects)

Inception has us follow a skilled thief named Dom Cobb, whose expertise is stealing valuable secrets from deep within a persons subconscious during a dream state where in which the mind is at its most vulnerable. His skillset leads him to being offered a job that, if done correctly, will give him the chance to be reunited with his children again. Unfortunately for Cobb the job at hand is performing an inception, to put an idea into someones subconscious. The job proves to be more difficult than Cobb and his team could have imagined.

Between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan created the sci-fi action thriller Inception in 2010 and the film still remained one of my favourites of the decade. Granted, the amount of exposition, mainly told to Mr. Saito and Ariadne as they serve as audience surrogates throughout the course of the film, might be tiresome to some on repeated viewings, but the concept and the execution of certain scenes are just terrific to watch unfold on the screen. After all, Nolan has created a screenplay of having the audience go through dreams within dreams, as well as dealing with the perception of the reality that is presented to us, all the while keeping track with the various timelines that’s going on and hoping that we’re still along for the ride. On a technical level I thought the production and set designs were fantastic, the visual effects still hold up tremendously a decade later (especially the city bending sequence), the sound mixing is extremely well done, the cinematography from Nolan’s frequent collaborator Wally Pfister is terrific and Hans Zimmer score is fantastic. While the main story relies on the visuals for the storytelling, it’s through Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb and Cillian Murphy’s Robert Fischer Jr. that the film provides the emotional arcs, though one is through manipulation in order for inception to succeed and the other is going through emotional trauma that puts the whole mission in jeopardy. Also Cobb himself knows the disastrous consequences of inception involving his dead wife Mal and it being the reason why he can’t be with his two children anymore, unless he succeeds with this mission to get back to them. Leonardo DiCaprio is great in the lead role and the rest of the ensemble are good too, with Ellen Page as Ariadne, the new architect brought in on the mission, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Tom Hardy as Eames, Marion Collitard as Mal, Dileep Rao as Yusuf and Ken Watanabe as Mr. Saito.

FAVOURITE SCENE: As Yusuf’s van rolls down the hill, it effects the level that Arthur is on in the hallway as he has to tackle Robert’s bodyguards spinning hallway with gravity constantly shifting. It’s still an impressive technical achievement to see how it unfolds onscreen, between the way it is edited and how it is filmed.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “Don’t you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone.” – Saito

DID YOU KNOW: In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, writer, producer, and director Christopher Nolan explained that he based roles of the Inception team similar to roles that are used in filmmaking, Cobb is the director, Arthur is the producer, Ariadne is the production designer, Eames is the actor, Saito is the studio, and Fischer is the audience. “In trying to write a team-based creative process, I wrote the one I know”, said Nolan.