The Last Movie I Saw

Finally, a summer movie that lives up to the hype! I really enjoyed Christopher Nolan's Inception, finding it intelligent and exciting in ways that have been sorely lacking in all the other films I've seen this season. I'm kind of a sucker for movies that place dreams at the center of the narrative, with some of my all-time favorites build on some aspect of that theme (Sherlock Jr., Until the End of the World, Waking Life, to name a few). Of course, this is consistent with the notion that movies are, in a sense, a kind of waking dream that generate the same kind of imaginative leaps one associates with the sort of stories that play while you sleep. Nolan has shown in the past that he can command attention to complicated plot elements without sacrificing plot momentum or emotional engagement (Memento being the chief piece of evidence for me), and he deftly steers this story towards a satisfying payoff that works on both a visceral and intellectual level. I'm not arguing that everything in this makes total sense-- the point is that the hokum doesn't sabotage the thrust of the story which plays out as much visually as verbally. That doesn't always happen in these big budget affairs, where special effects can often dominate at the expense of establishing a valid human link between the actors and the audience. But here, Leonardo DeCaprio, Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Ken Watanabe and others make that connection with Nolan's help. Surprisingly, Ellen Page comes off a little lightweight (I've always liked her in other films), but not so much as to disrupt the action going on around her. If we have to have big budget summer blockbusters, why can't more of them be as well-crafted as this?