Moving on, I know Inception doesn’t merit a review anymore since it has been running for more than a month now (that’s counting the Philippines and other countries where the film was shown) and so many reviews about it have already been posted online. But since I’ve only seen this film yesterday, and much enjoyed it, I still feel like giving my two-cents about this epic.
I’ll try to make the storytelling part of this review as short and spoiler-free as possible because what I’d like to focus on is the film’s controversial ending instead.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of Cobb, a person who engages in extraction (a process wherein a person penetrates the dream of another in order to obtain information) for a living.
Every time he steps into dreamland, Cobb always carries a top that would help him distinguish a dream from reality. The top spins endlessly if he’s still asleep and it stops if he’s already awake.
When Cobb’s wife (Marion Cotilard) dies, authorities link him to the incident and exile him from his homeland. The result – Cobb is separated from his parents and children.
In hopes of being together with his family again, Cobb strikes a deal with Saito (Ken Watanabe) to perform inception (planting an idea on another person through dreams) on his company’s competition, Robert Fisher (Cilian Murphy). In return, Saito promised to make the necessary arrangements that will allow Cobb to go back home.
The last scene of the film shows Cobb being reunited with his family and the top spinning. But before the audience could see if the top actually stops or keeps on spinning, the movie ends, and this where the genius of Christopher Nolan kicks in.
With so many complexities in this film, highlighted by dream-within-a-dream sequences and of course, the inconclusive ending, Inception is comparable to a crime mystery where viewers have to make use of the bits of evidences lain out by Nolan in order to put the case to a close.
The movie’s ending has stirred so much talk over the Internet that several people came up with their own theories as to how Inception really ends.
And while majority find the Cobb-is-still-in-dreamland Theory easier to accept, I on the other hand, must object because of the following grounds:
1.Based on the laws of physics, the wiggling of the top signals it’s about to stop;
2.Cobb and his team woke up in the same plane where they conducted extraction on Fisher. No scene indicates there was a previous extraction on Fisher; and
3.The credits of the film show that Cobb’s kids aged.
Items 1 and 2 may sound shallow but for a film so complicated, reading too much into things could only confuse you further. The simple reasons that require simple justifications should suffice.
Reason 3 may be strongest proof that Cobb did wake up and it also supports the first two. Contrary to popular belief that Cobb is still in dreamland because he was reunited to his kids the way he remembers them from some time ago, the credits imply that they aged and that Cobb did go home to real people. It’s easy to overlook this information because most of the audience could’ve walked away at the end of the film or could’ve simply ignored this part of the movie.
Still, my claims are subject to arguments, and that is the beauty of Inception. It doesn’t spoon-feed the audience with explicit and graphical information, and instead, gives room for the viewers to think and go figure out the movie themselves. And worse, it has an ending that’ll leave you hanging. What a way to get your mind f**ked?
Even if I already leaked out a lot of information for the uninitiated, it’s still worth watching because you can’t enjoy the Inception-experience unless you get to see it for yourself.
If you’re haven’t seen this film yet, you’ll have to wait for a DVD or downloadable version online because cinemas in the country have stopped showing it.
Action-packed and full of twists and turns, this film will definitely leave you scratching your head for answers. So if you got other ideas and theories on this film’s ending, fire away with the comments.
Very good observation. I'm just wondering, the clothes of the kids didn't change.
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