Inception, New York
Inception by far has been the best film I’ve seen so far this year. I very strongly suggest you see it before reading on further. As this post will draw from themes and ideas from the movie. I will try and stay as spoiler free but for the most part you will have to have seen both movies that I talk about during this post, Inception and Synecdoche, New York.
First some thoughts about Inception (generally). Chris Nolan is one of the few filmmakers who is willing to take risks, but very calculated risks. Much in the way he writes, as in the case with films like, Memento, The Prestige, and even Batman Begins/The Dark Knight, he is able to have compete control over situations, emotions, and depth. The risk comes that he is not conventional, in many ways. Who would be able to pull off a story told in reverse from the viewpoint of a man with short term amnesia, as his first major motion picture (Memento)? Not many directors, let alone directors/writers are capable of such a feat.
Mostly I’m overly impressed with the fact that Inception is not a dumb movie. Yes it’s a summer blockbuster, in most regards, but it still retains a sense of something that doesn’t quite belong, an anomaly. This is the well funded version of something that probably would have gone under the radar, yet critically acclaimed at Sundance. I think if Inception was made by a no name director, with a slightly less known cast, sadly it would have been missed by many people, and still have been the same great film. I think Nolan hit the perfect storm on this one. He as a director has moved into the mainlight, due mainly to his work on the Batman franchise, not to say he wasn’t noticed after films like Memento and The Prestige, but it was because of Batman, that the general public would be more open to a film like Inception. Not to mention casting rising stars like Joseph Gordon Levit (who I coincidentally went to high school with) and Ellen Paige, topped off by mainstays as Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Caine.
All in all it’s a solid and carefully crafted film. I won’t go into the specifics about the contents, because the entanglement of being thrust into the world that Nolan has envisioned is merely part of the joy of the film.
Back to my original thought. In many ways Inception is what Synecdoche, New York could have been. First a small primer on Synecdoche, New York.
Written and directed by the fiercely talented Charlie Kaufman, who’s pen is responsible for films such as Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Adaptation.. Synecdoche was Kaufman’s first film at the helm as a director. This would have posed a problem for such a complex film (more on this later) as Synecdoche, but Kaufman has already worked with such visionary directors as Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. Which gave him a great basis for the work he’d be doing on the complex and abstract Synecdoche. There is a synopsis on wikipedia here yet in a way I feel that the summary doesn’t do justice to the complexities that lie underneath a story about a man and his desire to fulfill his life.
In many ways Inception and Synecdoche parallel each other. It seems that Inception will be the sci-fi version of Synecdoche that is a commercial success. The strengths of both films rely on being complex and deep. Both about a man and his desires and how those desires fuel and direct his actions and how those actions effect those around him. Both films leave your head scratching in the end, pondering the sheer enormity of it all.
Ultimately Inception is more palatable than Synecdoche, at times the pacing of Synecdoche is slow and methodical, dragging you along, asking you to soak every minute detail in. Where Inception almost literally is thrusting you deeper and deeper into its throngs of twists and turns, all a long asking you to try and even encapsulate the details that are flying by faster than you can recognize that they are there. Both films are built upon the details that set the foundations for how you ultimately perceive the film, yet they ask you to interact with those details in polar opposite ways. One (Synecdoche) asks you to sit and be enveloped by the details and complexity, and the other (Inception) relies on the details being so precise that if any changed there would be a ripple effect across the entire film.
Both films are connected the by layers each one delves into. Multiple layers each, requiring the audience to mentally stay grounded as to follow the bread crumbs of each layer, in hopes that they may know the true way home. In both films the layers are each an individual and unique experience, drawing from the layers above them and leading to the layers below them. In many ways both Kaufman and Nolan are able to construct realities that usher the audience into a new and foreign world, without exposing them to each on in an abrasive way. There are new rules to be learned in each layer but the way each layer is presented we are still grounded in the reality of the last, only we are now trying to discover the subtle differences in the new layer.
I really enjoy both of these films for very different reasons. Yes both of the writer/directors of each hold their own on a separate plane, though in an odd way they both are complementary, yet only if you have seen both films. It is said that Nolan had spent the last 10 years writing Inception and one can only think that he saw Synecdoche at some point and drew from the complexities of Kaufman’s work to influence his own scenario about minds/dreams/realities.
I’m guessing this post won’t make sense to many, unless you’ve seen both Inception and Synecdoche, at the least I hope it highlights my love of great writers/directors who are willing to step far outside the little cube that hollywood resides in (especially in the last few years). There will always be a soft spot in my heart for those who dare to be creative and challenge you to think in new and different ways than we are used to think.
Thank you both Chris Nolan and Charlie Kaufman. Keep breaking the mold and creating amazing works of art and cinema.
Related posts: