And, since this has spoilers, I am writing here in this first paragraph in the hopes that Facebook, when it simultaneously posts this, will cut the article off before actually revealing anything that I want to "spoil," to people who have not already seen this wonderful, brilliant, thought-provoking film. Just in case you missed it, this is the review that HAS spoilers, which means that I am going to talk quite openly about my interpretation - and my lovely copilot's interpretation - of the meaning of the events in the film, and that's impossible without discussing the events which led each of us to our wildly different conclusions about it.
That said, it is almost impossible to truly spoil this film; there's no twist ending or big surprise that can be given away, because the structure of the film is such that every event has meaning, and yet conclusions cannot be drawn without seeing all of them. You literally cannot "give it away," because the story, and the telling of it, itself will lead the viewer to their own conclusions about it.
I will, however, note that it's really better if you watch this movie without reading this review the first time, so if you haven't seen Inception, please, you deserve to experience it the first time tabula rasa, that is, as a blank slate, upon which the movie can paint with strokes both broad and fine.
So.
-------------------------------------------------------------SPOILERS BEGIN HERE!!!!!-------------------------------------------------------------
Since my copilot and I are two different people, we have different views of the movie; in fact, our theories about it almost directly contradict each other. As this is the case, I am going to present to you both my interpretation of the events in the movie, and hers, insofar as I understand her view of it based on her hastily scrawled notes.
Yes, we took fucking notes. It deserves that.
So: my view, in brief, of this movie as a whole, is that Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is dreaming the entire thing, start-to-finish. Actual events DO get replayed, but only within the context of the dream itself.
The concept of totems is introduced in the movie: a personal item, that only one person in all the world can use, as a token indicating whether the person is, in fact, in reality or dream. In Cobb's case, this is a tiny metal top, which when in dream never stops spinning, but in reality wobbles to a stop after a few seconds.
The problem is that, as the movie later explains, the top was never COBB's item at all; it belongs instead to Cobb's wife Mal, who either died, or simply left the dreamworld.
As such, it doesn't provide Cobb an accurate touchstone for reality; although he uses it as such throughout the movie, it gives him no accurate information; it is a red herring. Cobb, however, relies on it, thus fooling himself into believing things in the dream to be "real," without any reliable sign that they in fact are.
The movie is riddled with events I saw as clues pointing to this conclusion.
Michael Caine, in theory Cobb's father (or Mal's; which is never made clear,) greets Cobb on their first meeting by telling Cobb to wake up, to come back to reality. This is a projection; as discussed in the movie, Cobb's subconscious is trying to warn him that he is in fact NOT in reality, and needs to - literally - wake.
One of the events which is at least ostensibly "real," though past, is Cobb and Mal's trip to limbo; Cobb convinced Mal to leave limbo with him by letting themselves be crushed by a train. Earlier in the movie, before this is revealed, a train thunders through a dream Cobb shares with his team, tearing up the road, literally plowing a path through traffic; this is another subconscious projection, trying to convince Cobb to return to wakefulness.
One of the concepts discussed in the movie is the idea that the subconscious will reject - violently - anything it "knows" to be false. Persistently, throughout the movie, Cobb is pursued; in the "real" world, by faceless corporations, and in the dream world by projections that are universally stronger and more violent than expected; this is because Cobb's own subconscious knows that he is dreaming, and is attempting to reject that dream, and growing more desperate to do so - and thus more violent in its attempts - as it becomes evident Cobb has totally lost track of reality and cannot get back on his own.
Cobb persistently warns others - in this context, all projections of his own subconscious - against using memories to build dreams, because it runs a greater risk of the dreamer losing track of reality, but he himself persistently does so, creating whole cityscapes out of his own experiences.
Mal either died, or left the dreaming state without Cobb; in context of the entire movie being a dream state, Cobb's oft-mentioned and displayed guilt over her "death" is actually the reverse; he is guilty not because she died, but because he let her return to reality alone; he abandoned her in favor of a fantasy carved from his own mind, and is guilty and ashamed for having failed her.
His "triumphant" return to the United States at the end of the movie is an attempt by his subconscious to display the unreality of what's happening to him; it is far too easy for him to return, given his own statements that he is fleeing extradition to the States to stand trial for Mal's death. No matter the power of a giant corporation, it takes more than a single phone call and 20 minutes to get murder charges reversed.
Mal - as a projection of Cobb's subconscious - tells him outright that he is in a dream several times; mentions the pursuit by faceless corporations, comparing that persecution to when projections reject and dismiss things which violate the stability of the dream world.
Cobb misses the kick and is still able to return - because it is his dream, and ultimately he has control of it, and thus is able to switch levels at will.
One of the elements Cobb uses as a demonstration to explain how to detect a dream is the fact that you never start a dream at the beginning; you are always simply in the dream, and things are happening. "How did you get to the cafe?" However, the film opens in exactly this way; Cobb, waking up face down in the surf, with no explanation of his presence.
Cobb uses the top at the end of the movie, and even as the screen goes dark, the top doesn't fall; only wobbles. Even his acceptance of someone else's token is a hint; he KNOWS the totem will not work accurately for him, as it's not his, but trusts it nonetheless because he has chosen to believe it.
In conclusion, going by its own internal logic, my interpretation of the film is that the entire thing, start to finish, is an exploration of a landscape of dream created by Cobb's own mind; there is no objective "reality" in this movie. The only thing of which you can be certain is that there is, in fact, a dreamer.
My lovely copilot disagrees in nearly every detail of my thesis; what follows is her rebuttal, as I am given to understand it. (Honey, when you read this, if I goofed it up, comment and explain. I don't mind editing.)
Her thesis is that the elements and events presented in the movie as "reality" are; that the story progresses as displayed, with a single exception: at the end of the movie, when Cobb ignores the kick to stay in limbo in an attempt to rescue Saito, he then never leaves limbo; from that point, he never wakes up.
To support this, she explains that Michael Caine, in the conversation I mentioned above, is merely telling Cobb to get over his wife's actual death; his choice of language is strictly coincidence.
The top Cobb uses throughout the movie was Mal's totem, true, but after her death, he WAS the only person on earth who would truly know it, and therefore it DID work for Cobb as a reliable indicator of reality or dream. At the end of the film, when it spins without stopping, it is indicating that he is still dreaming, but only that time; all the other times, it worked flawlessly.
The appearance of the train was a manifestation of his subconscious guilt over Mal's death, because it was the way that they "died" together the first time they entered limbo.
The violent events were exactly as portrayed; Cobb was a criminal, and criminals make dangerous enemies for themselves. The violence in the dreamscapes was due to the dreamers' rejection of the changes Cobb and his team brought with them.
She also points out that during the sequence in limbo where Cobb goes to rescue Saito, his "death" is never shown onscreen; there's no evidence that he ever received the "kick" at all, and thus remained in limbo. Even his final confrontation with the vastly aged limbo-Saito never actually ends; it just stops. There's no stimulus whatsoever to bring him out of the dream, and thus everything from that point on remains dream, including his return to the USA and the faces of his children.
And she notes that Mal never shows up during the sequences the movie identifies as "reality," which seems as though it would have been likely if Cobb dreamed it all, given the persistence of her presence within the acknowledged dream states. Her presence within the dream states is a manifestation of Cobb's guilt over her death through his own error.
That last, by the way, is what I feel is the strongest point in favor of her interpretation; Mal is an incredibly pervasive presence in the segments identified as dream, and she didn't show up even once during the putatively "real" segments.
I will note, here, that regardless of which interpretation you agree with, if you do, over 75% of the movie takes place in a dreamscape. I would be interested to see the interpretations of my readers; we can water-cooler this movie to death in my comments. This is an appropriate time for long comments, guys, so feel free. Go wild. Astonish me with your theories.
This is an amazing film from end to end, and like a Moebius strip, twists upon itself, becoming a singularity from which there is no true, real exit; it loops upon itself in its very structure in a recurrence that begs many questions of the audience, and delivers no true answers.
It is what you bring to it - your own perceptions and preconceptions - that give it meaning; it is a perfect mirror for your OWN subconscious.
This is the best movie I've seen in years, and unquestionably one of the most important.
Go see it.
