Accepting the deal, Cobb assembles a very special team to assist him. They include: Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Cobb's pragmatic right-hand man; Eames (Tom Hardy), a British forger who can impersonate anyone within a dream; Yusef (Dileep Rao), a chemist whose drug compound enables the team to enter the mark's dream - and dreams within that dream; and Ariadne (Ellen Page), the "architect" of the dream, who manufactures the dreamworld for the group so that they know the ins and outs of it when trouble comes. And trouble often comes in the form of the dreamer's subconscious, which, as a defense mechanism, is often spurred to attack the dream-stealers (for instance, the random faces that populate your dreams will suddenly pounce upon whoever is messing around in there - a really splendid notion). Robert's mind has been trained to protect against raiders who might covet his information, hence his subconscious packs some serious heat.
If this all sounds confusing, well, it is. At least, for a while. (I haven't even mentioned Cobb's former wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), who functions as the hostile embodiment of Cobb's deeply troubled psyche and a constant threat to his every mission.) But Nolan keeps all this going in sharply focused bursts, as we move from one mind-twisting idea to another; the characters are almost always explaining the rules (sometimes even re-explaining them), well into the film. Exposition is a large part of the narrative, but one of Nolan's real accomplishments is that it doesn't come off as perfunctory or rote. It works to guide into a world in which we're willing to further immerse oursel
Aside from all the gymnastics your brain is required to perform, there's plenty for your more thrill-seeking self to enjoy. The film looks wonderful for starters; every set is designed to within an inch of its life, every sequence is lit and staged masterfully (Wally Pfister is almost certain to earn another Oscar nod for his cinematography, after being nominated for Nolan's last three films). The action is executed with booming ferocity - a car chase in a rainy Los Angeles street and a gunfire-laden break-in at a snowy (subconscious) fort are done with the same serious efficiency as we've come to expect from Nolan and his team. There's barely an explosion, car crash or machine-gun burst that doesn't rattle your bones.
But the topper is a showdown between Gordon-Levitt and some brain-henchmen in a topsy-turvy, zero-gravity hotel hallway. Though it's all too brief, it accomplishes some genuine "how the hell did they do that?!" moments, the kind that are far too infrequent in this age of CG-everything.
If there's a complaint to be lodged, it's one that isn't new to Nolan's work: There's a certain chilliness to the proceedings; the unfolding events are wonders for the mind but have no real home in the heart. Cobb, for all his tragedy, isn't a very sympathetic character - neither are any of his colleagues, for that matter. Nolan never really looks for the soul of these individuals, and some of the scenes that attempt feelings of warmth or sorrow seem as carefully constructed as one of the violent set-pieces.
A rather insignificant complaint in this case, because the palpable energy and intelligence on display is just too involving. Nolan is truly an expert filmmaker, that much was clear already but it's been rubber-stamped now. It's hard to think of anyone else getting away with such something so ruminative and sophisticated on the scale that Inception resides on. It's a major work from a director with a lot on his mind, who wants to put a lot on ours.
