Holy. Living. Fuck. I don’t want to give too much away, but this is one of the smartest films I’ve seen in… maybe ever. And the main reason is writer/director Christopher Nolan. The story, or elements of it, has been done before: lucid dreaming, Matrix-like questions of reality. But Nolan does what so many of those other films do not. He sets the rules of the fantasy, obeys them, and even uses them to create the fantastic sights and sounds. Recall, most recently, Gilliam’s …Doctor Parnassus or Burton’s Alice in Wonderland; these are examples of visually stunning dream-worlds that obey no laws, thus keeping the viewer from becoming fully emotionally connected with the story because they don’t understand the “rules” enough to come along. The viewer is forced merely to watch and see, not to surrender.
Here, Nolan’s world of dreaming is structured but no less amazing to witness. And the last hour of the film is nothing less than sheer storytelling and filmmaking perfection. With all the layers to keep in order, any misused scene - hell, any missing or wrong shot - would result in bringing the entire house of cards down. It’s a hell of a balancing act to pull off, but Nolan does it so damn well. I’m not even embarassed to say that, at one point in the final half hour, things fit together so perfectly, with such visual flair, with such cinematic and dramatic sense, that I practically welled up from the thrill.
Bra-vo.
