INCEPTION

INCEPTION (RatedPG-13 for ongoing violence):  Hang on, folks; writer/director Christopher Nolan is at it again.  After eight years of prep he finished this puzzling whirlwind mind teaser that really must be seen twice - once to appreciate the tantalizing combinations of all things cinematic  and a second time to watch the pieces of his puzzling plot come together - most of the time.  Subtle shifts in editing, casually dropped hints in dialog, clever leaps in action all combine to make this an exciting, suspenseful  film. 

Nolan's ability to work with mazes piled on mazes, as he did in earlier films (Matrix, Insomnia, The Dark Night), force one, for full appreciation, to accept detail after detail on a variety of levels simultaneously before seeing the magnificence  in his movies - this one topping all those previous.

As simply as possibly put:  an amoral man for hire, Cob (Leonardo DiCaprio) calls himself an "extractor," a person capable of entering people's minds, learning things that even he might have forgotten, for high gains.  Specifically, he is hired by a corporate biggie Saito (Ken Watanabe) to bypass competitors (an entire family full) and gain access to an organization powerful enough to take on the world.  With a small group of aids, Cobs hires an equally amoral young woman Ariadne (Ellen Page) to create an architecture of dream sights & actions that should eventually lead the team into dangerous new territories, down through triple-leveled dream worlds, to achieve their goal.

Cob, it turns out, needs Ariadne to accomplish what for personal reasons he can never again accomplish;  she's a quick learner, capable of bringing him along, sometimes against his will, into those dark spaces of their somnolent creation.

Also intruding is Cob's dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), who  might be either his deadly adversary or savior in mysterious, alternating situations.

The game takes them to exotic places - China, Mombasa, France, the USA - as they play a cat/mouse series of dream games with the competing agents for power.

Nolan said in an interview:  "People want big explosions & destruction?  I give them plenty, all over the world."  And indeed he does, accompanied by Hans Zimmer's high powered, pulsating music in undiluted overload; cleverly, deceitfully edited by Lee Smith; and all enriched with Paul Franklin's visual magic tricks. 

If the fireworks were not enough, there are Nolan's meticulously designed puzzle pieces - dozens of them - totems to help the dreamers awaken (when not killed, which works in some situations, but not all); Cob's two children who refuse to face him in his dreams until Mal permits it, the use of a potent sedative for the deepest, timed sleep; Escher-type structures capable of folding an entire city block on itself, and more.  The novelties are intricate, from the very first scene in the film (Cob is awash in a crashing wave on a beach as he is dumped simultaneously into a full indoor bathtub, for example) on through the rapidly moving 2 1/2 hours to a wrap-up that's supposed to, and almost does, explain everything.

Cob is a typical Nolan hero - a man with suppressed emotions with memories he cannot control - wracked by guilt & melancholy, with a sense of unfinished business pushing against his conscious intentions.  As he passes through his psychic & physical torments he captures us with amazing incidents, unlimited stuff that dreams are made of - chases & fights that defy gravity, time & space.  And DiCaprio captures that spirit to a T.

The cinematic spectacles are, in themselves, worth the price of admission, but added to the director's ability to screw up the lives of his characters in most interesting manners (along with your own) is the plus that lifts this film above the rest of a summer's noisy, silly box-office action flicks.  (Grade: A)