There is a reason why Inception is, for me, the most anticipated movie of the summer, perhaps even for the year. For starters, it stars a handful of my favorite actors and is directed by one of my favorite up-and-comers. On top of that, the story centers around one of my favorite subjects, dreams! And top it all off, I find the whole idea of a “mind heist” more than fascinating.

The concept of dreams is one that is severely underused and often mishandled by the film industry. Mostly, they are used to fake out scares in horror films and to cap off films with an easy twist. I’m sure there are many more, but I can only think of a few films that have openly delved into dreams and nightmares on a large scale: Kurosawa’s Dreams, Dreamscape, A Nightmare on Elm St. and its many sequels.

Inception takes us a bit deeper into the boundaries of dreams than a Freddy Krueger film ever would. For example, it tinkers around with the relativity of time that one can experience in their dreams compared to that of their waking lives. You could feel like you are within in a dream for several hours even though you’ve only been asleep for just a margin of that time. This concept is used to great success, factoring significantly in the stellar third act of the film.

As you probably know by now, Inception is more or less a heist flick. But the main characters aren’t trying to steal money or paintings. In fact, they aren’t trying to steal anything at all. The target is Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), the wealthy, but insecure son of a dying businessman. His competitor, Saito, has hired an “extractor” named Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) to implant an idea into Fischer’s head that could ultimately cripple his father’s company.  To do this, Cobb must use his dreams. Exactly how this is done isn’t described, but then again, could somebody please  explain to me how lightspeed and flux capacitors work?

Cobb brings along Arthur, his usual sidekick played by Joseph Gorden-Levitt, and several new recruits, including a “forger” (Tom Hardy), who can transform into different people within dreams, a “chemist” (Drag Me to Hell‘s Dileep Rao) who delivers the drugs necessary for such a con, and an “architect,” a college student named Ariadne (Ellen Page), who is important for constructing the dreamscapes.

While Inception occupies itself with several characters who aren’t necessarily good, it takes quite a captivating route in selecting its villain. In most cases, you would believe it to be Saito (Ken Watanabe), and in most movies, you would have been right. Early on, you realize that the film has only one true antagonist and that is Mal, the raptorial memory of Cobb’s deceased wife who relentlessly stalks Cobb in his dreams. This, of course, symbolizes his need to stop living in his memories and ultimately move on from his guilt. Obviously, this makes his dreams a tad bit unstable, and therefore complicates his “job” more and more as each day passes. In a way, you could say that this makes Cobb both the hero and the villain of the film.

Inception is perhaps one of the more interesting mainstream films to have come out in a while. It favors psychology and characters over superficial action, and uses its effects to both bend and break the laws of physics as the story sees fit. There is a lot of spectacle to be seen here, and there is a sufficient amount of suspense, underscored by a subtle, yet fantastic score by Hans Zimmer. One notable action sequence in the film takes place in a hotel hallway. Due to some rather unique circumstances that I rather not attempt to explain rationally, Arthur finds himself battling an unnamed assailant as gravity shifts from one direction to another. This pure, kinetic moment will leave you thinking, “The Matrix can eat its heart out!”

It’s not as artistic as Christopher Nolan’s earlier films, Following and Memento, but it manages to fit in nice and snug with his Batman films. Let me just say, when the end titles started rolling, the audience, rocked by the open-ended experience they just had, gave the film a harmonious and monumental applause.

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