Inception

Editorial

The director-as-magician analogy feels least tired when applied to Christopher Nolan, given his body of work, its formal and mental layers and precisely engineered reveals. At best, this approach can be exhilarating. At worst it is obfuscation masquerading as artistry.

Marvel at the effrontery of a filmmaker who asks you to emotionally invest in avowed mental constructs — and succeeds. This is about life and death and what might be beyond and between. It is also about blazing gun battles, zero-gravity fist fights and stars you'd like to sleep with.

Some rise to particularly fascinating challenges (Tom Berenger) and some surprise — principally Cillian Murphy. Others exert a personality and appeal on parts that on the page would have played very close to ‘types' — particularly Ellen Page, Basil Exposition, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Based on his previous behaviour, Nolan isn't likely to explain what he thinks Inception is actually about, but it's certainly possible to see it as a blockbuster allegory about grief, faith and the desire for an afterlife — to be reunited with those we love and have lost.

When you're not basking in the visuals, you can always lean into DiCaprio and appreciate the emotion. He anchors everything. An actor who has long borne the blessing and the burden of being hailed a genius before he was even a man, he has never been less than good, but can appear either callow or try-hard. Not here. To deliver two such turns in a career would be impressive. In a year, it's just showing off.

Nev Pierce