If you’re having trouble making sense of Inception, you’re not alone.
Guess what?
Even Inception’s stars are having a hard time understanding the plot.
No kidding, folks.
How much more ridiculous can it get!
Here’s an excerpt from the WSJ’s interview with Tom Berenger, who has a supporting role in the film:
What was your first impression of the story?
I went, whoa. I took my time with it. I didn’t race. But I have to say, after I finished it, if anybody had interrogated me under torture to tell them what exactly the plot was, I’d be hard put.
Did shooting demystify the material?
One time I started laughing on set. The little girl, Ellen [Page], she goes, ‘Wait a minute, is this a dream within a dream?’ I went, ‘oh, yeah, good question.’ I kind of lost it. I talked to one of the other actors and he said, ‘I’ve seen it three times and it takes a couple of times for you to nail it.’
Source: Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2010
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You might have already come across the review on rediff.com.
http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/jul/16/review-inception.htm
Now, either the reviewer has actually understood the movie in all its intricacies
and enjoyed it, or he is just faking it. Hard to tell.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Let’s make an assumption (completely false, of course, but just for the sake of argument) that we’re schmucks.
What about the movie’s stars. Even they can’t understand the plot.
2. You write: either the reviewer has actually understood the movie in all its intricacies
and enjoyed it,
Maybe, he/she/it understood the power of 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and decided to go with the flow. 😉
Would you watch a bad movie (Raavan, Singam…) where you understood the plot or watch a movie like say Inception, Mulholland Drive, Pi etc. where the concept was unclear.
IMHO movie making is an art and should not be looked like a portrait or a cartoon for the lowest viewers intelligence.
There are a lot of directors who feed the cast only the sections of plot they need to know. Tom Berenger is not even a key supporting character for Chris Nolan to walk him through every plot twist. Come on SI, you know better 🙂
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: Would you watch a bad movie (Raavan, Singam…) where you understood the plot or watch a movie like say Inception, Mulholland Drive, Pi etc. where the concept was unclear.
No disagreement here.
Any day, we’d rather watch a Deception oops Inception over Asingam oops Singam, Asura oops Sura, Unnaipol Oru Madayan oops Unnaipol Oruvan et al. 😉
But Nolan brought heavy expectations to the Inception party.
Social scientists would likely describe our feeling of loss as Relative Deprivation.
2. You write: Tom Berenger is not even a key supporting character for Chris Nolan to walk him through every plot twist
Wrong. Tom Berenger read the full script.
Please see below excerpt from the WSJ piece:
3. You write: IMHO movie making is an art and should not be looked like a portrait or a cartoon for the lowest viewers intelligence.
True, but even great film-makers sometimes skid on the slippery slope of the fantastic.
Watched Inception yesterday night… A movie you either go with or despise. You’re the latter, apparently.
It was entirely Nolan’s world, and he played with what he chose to reveal and not reveal to the audience., including how he viewed dreams, or the rules of dreams. You either view everything as a flaw or go by what he creates and shows you., and interpret the movie by the rules it lays down.. I did the latter.
Much the same way Cameron fooled SI into thinking a hollywood version of the “Vietnam Colony” story (starring Prabhu and Vinita) is a Visual Tour de Force. I loved Avatar too in the same way I do to Inception, Total Recall, The Matrix Trilogy, LOTR. All these movies had their own rules.
(read http://searchindia.com/2009/12/18/avatar-review-a-visual-tour-de-force/)
Absolutely understandable that you did not like it or identify with the movie. I did. Been reading about different interpretations of the story on the net. The possibilities seem endless how to interpret the movie, leave alone the ending. Cannot deny it made me think.. going to watch it again. And this time, don’t really care about your review.. just read it and posted this comment on my view of it 🙂
The Oscar awaits Nolan. Just you see.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. We’d heard of Sivaji Ganesan’s Vietnam Veedu but the offspring’s Vietnam Colony is news to us.
2. Although we didn’t feel an emotional connection with Inception we’re tempted to watch it again.
Sure, we’ll grant that Inception was different from the run of the mill movies. But then the Unabomber was different too. 😉
Let’s see, maybe on Stimulus Tuesdays when Soda and Popcorn are both $1 at our local theater. 😉
We’d like to see the Inception ending again.
3. After a long time, we had multiple dreams last night. Seriously. Not kidding now. At least two. But we can’t for the life of us recollect what the dreams were about.
Wonder if dreaming but not remembering what the dreams are about is common.
4. You write: The Oscar awaits Nolan. Just you see.
If Sushmita Sen can win the Miss Universe contest and Priyanka Chopra can bring home the Miss World bacon, anything, anything can happen. No, we won’t be surprised.
Haha. Either love it or hate it.. But I had a feeling you would not like it, somehow.
Are you not an Anime person or something? I dont find much of animated movies on your radar..
Too old for them or something?
Try “Despicable Me”… but given it may not be better than TS-3 or “How to Train..”, I doubt you will watch it.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. No, not much into anime although we’re considering watching some Miyazaki films.
2. Right now, keen on watching the Swedish film The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second installment in the Millennium Trilogy.
Here’s the review of the first movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Movie) Review – Riveting, More So for Stieg Larsson Fans
Given your lukewarm response to “Inception”., I cant wait to see what choiciest of words you are going to use for “Salt”. I can almost see an epicfail of a movie around the corner..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Saw the Salt preview when we went to Inception.
Didn’t like Angelina’s hair dye – weird color. 😉
Tom(Berenger) probably didn’t get it because he wasn’t actually in the movie.. it was Tom(Hardy) impersonating Berenger playing Browning.
The final totem scene got a collective chuckle from crowd.. that alone is proof that the movie was well-liked. You cannot expect a home run every time… got to be happy with a double some times.. [wrong here]
SearchIndia.com Responds:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/07/15/tom-berenger-admits-he-didnt-understand-inception-plot-either/
he seem to treat his work as a hobby.. We can’t take him seriously.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Hobby?
A well paying one.