Inception

Title: Inception (2010)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Drama, Sci-fi
Lead Actor(s): Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page
Rating: PG-13
148 minutes

Christopher Nolan is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. Inception is trippy and thinky and great. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, the best “extractor” around with a very preoccupied subconscious. Extractors go into people’s dreams to unlock secrets for other people. Cobb and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are recruited for a big job and they must build a team including a forger, Eames (Tom Hardy), an architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), a chemist, Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and the benefactor, Saito (Ken Wantanabe) to go deep into a mark’s mind.

Cobb has the most story in the movie and it is very complicated. DiCaprio handles such an intricate character with the taut skill he has become adept at. That being said, I would like to see him as a lighter character. His recent choices for characters never have a chance to smile and he was just as good at characters that smile. Back to his performance in this movie, I completely understand why Nolan only intended for DiCaprio for the role. This character is constantly tormented by personifications of his subconscious. He literally faces his evils in a more concrete way than the average person can dream. Cobb, however, feels that he has to continue. It doesn’t matter if he puts his whole team at risk. This gravity ways on DiCaprio as heavy as an anchor. Every movement, facial expression, every inflection is defined by this evil.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is absolutely magnificent. He is half of the comedic relief (the other being Hardy as Eames) and also a more balanced and level person than Cobb. He is more dimensional than Cobb as well. Gordon-Levitt is just fun to watch in the movie. DiCaprio is tormented and marvelous, but Gordon-Levitt just helps pull the audience away from a constant and sharp decline with Cobb. Gordon-Levitt has really grown into a fun and talented actor.

The one actor I was probably most disappointed with was Ellen Page. She was great the first 20-30 minutes, but as soon as she started discovering Cobb’s back story, I thought she dropped the ball a bit. I know that Page can do serious, even frightening. She proved this in Hard Candy. As such I am not entirely sure why when things got darker, she distanced herself from the character. I think Gordon-Levitt’s character would have been just as effective in the role this character had to play.

The directing and writing, both done by Nolan, were interesting and made the movie more of an experience. I am dying to know how he did those hallway scenes. I also want to say I loved the villain. There were times where it was so utterly unsettling. The villain really bumped the movie to the next level. I am trying not to give too much away because it would ruin the movie and the ad campaign was so careful to reveal so little. That is how I like my trailers. They need to leave some mystery so I don’t come out of the theatre feeling like I could have saved my money and just watched all the trailers to get to the end.

If Inception is not recognized for certain elements come award season, I will be very disappointed and it will probably just make me like Nolan more. I urge everyone to see this movie. This is what great movies can be. They don’t have to be in 3-d, if they have a good plot, fun and interesting characters, and the director can use his imagination. Too many directors are relying on 3-d to make their movies. If Avatar had not been in 3-d, there is no way it would have made the massive amounts of money it did. It certainly would not have been nominated for Best Picture. I will now get off my soapbox and give one last plea to see this movie. There have been practically no good movies, not made by Pixar, out this summer and finally this arrived. If it were not for Ellen Page, this movie would have gotten a 10.

********* 9/10

The Prestige

Title: The Prestige (2006)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Lead Actor(s): Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale
Rating: PG-13
130 minutes

Until today I did not realize that Christopher Nolan directed this, but I should have known stylistically. The movie is about the rivalry between to magicians stemming from the death of one of their wives at the other’s hands. Each becomes obsessed with the other. Christian Bale portrays Alfred Borden and Hugh Jackman is Robert Angier.

Jackman’s wife (Piper Perabo) is the one that is murdered. Following this Angier descends into a madness and obsession with Borden. Even shoots him. Borden debuts a trick where he seemingly teleports from one side of the stage to another. Jackman is wonderfully at varying between the lowest obsessive depression to the high experienced after completing a trick successfully. He also portrays a double for Angier to replicate the vanishing act. His double is a slobbering drunk. Jackman is just as good there as he is as Angier. When Jackman plays a character that has reason for happiness, his joy is palpable.

Bale’s character is a bit harder to wrap one’s head around. He is, however, very well-suited for the role. He is much quieter and reserved than Angier. He also has far more tumultuous relationships with those around him.  His wife even states that she can tell the days he loves her more than magic and the ones he doesn’t. He is powerful in his reservation. This makes the times when he does appear to lose control much more startling.

There are several good supporting actors. Michael Caine plays an illusionist engineer named Cutter who has at one time been a friend to both leads. Scarlett Johansson is originally Angier’s assistant sent to spy on Borden, but ends up falling in love with him. My favorite casting though is David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. If there is ever a biography of him brought to screen, Bowie needs to play that role.

The only thing I don’t particularly like is one of the two twists of the movie. It seems to come from nowhere and does not fit with the rest of the film at all. Unfortunately that is a big part of the movie and it is rather jarring at the end. It also doesn’t help that the first time I watched it was at 3 a.m. and I was exhausted by the time the ending came around. On subsequent viewings though, it was just as jarring. It really takes away from what could have been an utterly great film. I still suggest watching it because the performances are still wonderful and the rest of the film is very interesting and entertaining.

******** 8/10

The Dark Knight

I held off til the last day to write a Batman review. Aren’t ya proud?

Title: The Dark Knight (2008)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Comic Book, Drama
Lead Actor(s): Christian Bale, Heath Ledger
Rating: PG-13
152 minutes

This is obviously my favorite Batman movie. I think it is just about everyone’s favorite batman movie. For those two of you that don’t know the plot of the movie. The Joker is wreaking havoc on Gotham and Batman has to stop him. Originally The Joker is not very interested in Batman, but as he learns more he becomes obsessed with testing Batman’s resolve. Through a particularly horrific act by The Joker, district attorney Harvey Dent is horrifically marred and becomes Two-Face giving Batman one villain that is his exact antithesis and one villain that was once Gotham’s White Knight.

Christian Bale is wonderful at what George Clooney and Val Kilmer failed at. Bale’s Bruce Wayne is completely different from Batman and from Bruce in the bunker with Alfred. Bale seems comfortably playing the Wayne that buys a hotel so he can go swimming in the restaurant’s decorative pool with two supermodels and the Batman who goes on a high-speed chase with The Joker on the highways of Gotham or asking Lucius to make him a new gadget. Aside from the sometimes incomprehensibility of his Batman voice (it seemed to get deeper and gravelier between Batman Begins and this movie), he is an excellent Batman. I’d even go so far as to say he is the best film incarnation of Batman.

Aaron Eckhart was a good casting decision. He has the face of a typical film lawyer. He plays Harvey Dent beautifully. He has the pompous righteousness that fits so well with the character. My only problem is that his Two-Face lacks a lot of the duality that is so important to the character. His Two-Face is just angry. He does take the flip of the coin seriously, but he is lacking the dual personalities. This being said, I don’t know that we saw enough of the character to make a true determination of Eckhart’s performance as Two-Face. I personally don’t believe that Two-Face is dead. The character is so rich and rather central to the Batman universe that for him to be used so little seems odd. I don’t know that he will return in the next movie, but I do expect him to return in a later movie.

I love Batman, but my favorite villain is definitely The Joker. He is probably my favorite villain ever. I find the character fascinating and truthfully, he is part of the reason I became interested in forensic psychology. Now, I was one of the people who thought the casting choice of Heath Ledger as The Joker was a bit odd. He had displayed his versatility in the role of Ennis in Brokeback Mountain, but he still often played the charismatic ladies man. He had never played a character as perverse as The Joker. He was astounding in the character. He was darker than any other incarnation in film or tv. His Joker probably had more in common with the Mark Hamill voiced one than the Jack Nicholson one. He had the demented mentality so important in a good portrayal of the character. He also created a great voice to go along with the character. Every movement, action, facial expression is so spot on. There is even this wonderful look in his eyes that just speaks of the darkness of his soul. For an actor who was apparently very calm and even, it is truly remarkable that Ledger had the ability to bring that insanity into his performance. Every scene is a joy to see him in. My favorite is when The Joker is leaving the hospital and his explosives don’t go off and when they finally do, he gets such a look of happiness, almost like a child’s. The Joker is one of the deadliest of Batman’s gallery of rogues. Part of his deadliness comes from his utter lack of care at the outcomes of his actions. Ledger’s death was obviously a horrific tragedy. He was a gifted actor and could have had an immensely long career. Christopher Nolan left The Joker’s fate so open that it was obvious that he was going to come back. It would have been wonderful to see the reappearance, but no one can step into that role for several years.

Christopher Nolan understands the Batman universe just as well, if not better, than Bryan Singer understands the X-Men. His Gotham is dirty underneath, but can appear glitzy. People in Gotham ignore the crime that is a few miles from their door and Nolan uses the environment of the city to reflect that. The realism in Nolan’s Gotham helps make the depravity of the villains seem so much more frightening. Nolan is a fantastic director and the perfect man to direct this series. I am excited to see the new Batcave once it finally comes along.

Unfortunately I don’t really have the room to discuss the great performances of Michael Caine as Alfred or Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox or mention the fun bits of dialogue for us Batman geeks, but this is definitely the best Batman film made so far. It is quite long and with The Joker in the mix, Two-Face kind of takes a backseat, but in my opinion Two-Face was only set up in this film to become a threat in a later one. The only thing I wish is that Harley Quinn had made an appearance. I adore her character and I think her dynamic with The Joker is fascinating. If you only see one Batman film and possibly comic book film, this is the one to see.

********** 10/10