Inception

Wowdy frikken wow. The trailers for Inception have been a major source of entertainment over the past few months. I love listening to those horns with their repeating HONK like an impatient driver stuck in a never ending traffic jam. Now, the film is finally out.
I'm forming a hypothesis about Christopher Nolan and his latest flick which he both wrote and directed is the cement on the cake. He's either a) freakishly good at what he does or b) he's planted an idea in everyone's head that he is freakishly good at what he does. Everything he creates is masterful, from Memento, to The Prestige and then resurrecting a seemingly dead comic book franchise and turning it into a film with an Oscar winning performance. What a guy! And now to add to that list is Inception.
Inception is... complicated... sort of.
Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio - Shutter Island) is not your run of the mill thief. He goes into people's dreams when they are asleep and extracts secrets. It's corporate espionage taken to an all new level. If you know what your enemy is trying to hide from you then you've got a super big advantage.
Cobb's latest client Saito (Ken Watanabe - Batman Begins) wants his competitor, Robert Fischer Jr.(Cillian Murphy - 28 Days Later), in the energy business to split up his dying father's company which will give Saito the upper hand. All Cobb has to do is plant that idea in his Fischer's head. Sounds simple enough but no one has ever done that before, they've only taken information.
His team comprises of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt - 500 Days of Summer), newcomer Ariadne (Ellen Page - Juno), and Eames (Thomas Hardy - Bronson). Together they share each other’s dreams as they navigate the landscape of the subconscious, a landscape that has a pretty impressive defence system. But Cobb is haunted with guilt over the death of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard - Public Enemy) and that is affecting his work.
I think that's enough of a synopsis without getting too spoilery.
The word 'wow' keeps running through my head. This film really is something different. It felt like it took little while to get started though that was probably a good thing. There's a whole lot of information to take in during the films two and a half hours and you don't want to be left behind, you need that extra bit of time to keep up the pace.
The special effects are extraordinary. There's a scene with no gravity that is like a well choreographed ballet, it's so graceful and beautiful to watch. DiCaprio keeps getting better and better with age. I'm certain this performance warrants an 'Oscar nod' for next year's Academy Awards. Dang, I hope it clears out every category!
Wow.
Things I learnt: so that's what a human sandwich looks like... ; Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a great future ahead of him; that ending will be debated for a long time.
Nine out of ten.