See, my friend Brandon highly recommended this movie and you might notice Brandon's name next to these words...right over there...to the right...yep, there it is. He's a film critic and I pay pretty close attention to what he says. When a friend asks if I have seen a new movie yet, I usually haven't but I know Brandon has - so I send them to his website. When Brandon REALLY likes a movie, I try and make a point of seeing it. He's getting ready to see Inception for the fourth time.
When I very first saw the ads for Inception, I actually told Jeff that it looked like "so many other things" I had seen coming out. I made a snap judgement about the movie from seeing the slo-mo stuff in the trailer - and I only half-paid attention to the trailer anyway - it just looked so matrix-y. Remember...right after the matrix came out, everyone - and I DO mean EVERYONE - was doing that little slo-mo-half-fall thing in every movie (including animated features)? I just got sick of seeing it in everything I watched. It was ultra-cool in The Matrix, but it was just lame everywhere else. I could not have been more wrong, of course - about Inception. It was spectacular and NEW and fabulous and scary and frightening.
I have never felt so lost 2 minutes into a movie before. I was STILL feeling a bit lost AN HOUR into the movie. I also felt like I couldn't breath, could hardly swallow, sick-at-my-stomach frightened and like my heart was beating outside of my body at a rapid-fire pace. I wonder if this feeling goes away after more views of the movie...
The plot of this movie has to do with people entering dreams - shared dreams - with willing and unwilling individuals and chasing down and building things in another reality. The possibility that this might happen in real life never even entered my mind. The movie was SO well done that you don't question anything. You just sit there - dead silent - and believe. I cannot even begin to describe everything I saw and took in - it was almost too much for the first viewing. Brandon's already trying to get me to go again and I understand why. Every attempt I could make at a careful description of the movie, plot, characters, etc would only be fruitless and feeble. If you want to know things about the storyline, I recommend you click the IMDB link below. I can, however, discuss things I do know about.
I paid close attention to the other people in the theater. I have never been to a movie where everyone was so silent. I mean, we're talking pin-drop kind of atmosphere. How incredible that Christopher Nolan was able to take the audience on such a ride! Seriously - no one dared move lest they miss something important. I knew I was about sick of seeing water everywhere because I reaaaaalllly had to get up to use the restroom, but I actually decided to sit in my seat in case I might miss something. The people in front of us didn't budge. The people to the side of us didn't budge. There wasn't any strange rustling noise or random people wandering around. There weren't people coming and going to concessions. They just all sat and watched and let themselves be completely taken over by the experience. I'm not sure that I have ever seen a reaction like that - but then again, I fell asleep during Star Wars (IV) when I saw it in the theater. I bet it was something similar to that experience though. When people's minds are stretched beyond the day-to-day film experience, you have an almost tangible moment where you can touch intellect being piqued and fantasy being realized. What a wonderful experience to be a part of - even if I was just a lowly audience member.
When I did finally (!!!) get to go to the restroom, I was washing my hands and I noticed the water moving sideways. I looked around me and spotted a dryer above my head (our movie theater have these hand dryers that basically act like jet-engines - your skin even ripples when you use them) and someone had turned a dryer on, dried their hands thoroughly and then walked away. When they left, the air current was directed down and the stream of water coming from the faucet was moving ever-so-slightly to the left. I shivered a little and my mind raced back to the scenes in the movie where things just started moving sideways. I told Jeff about my experience in the bathroom as we were exiting the theater and about my wondering for just a moment about the "gravity" of the situation and he started bending sideways and asking what I meant. Nothing like leaving a movie and questioning whether or not you're still in the movie - going with a smart alec definitely adds to THAT experience.
It truly is a must-see, must-experience movie.
The IMDB Link
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