I’ve heard and read things about this film like, “Four and a half out of 5”. Or, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god it’s so complicated I should see it again but my head might explode”. Or, “…near genius”. That’s always a warning, right there. Near genius. How near? Like, having a rear-end accident near?
It’s simple. It’s a heist film inside someone’s head. But without the payoff.
To quote the magnificent Peter Cook in The Princess Bride, there’s a dweam within a dweam. (And then another one inside that one.) It’s like a pass-the-parcel game at a kids’ party - with more guns but the same amount of snivelling.
Plot holes. You want plot holes? I’ll give you plot holes. I’m pandering to my own pedantry, but I will say again - if you are going to sink that amount of money into something, why don’t you shore up the leaky bits to make sure it doesn’t get inundated by the flood of its own stupidity. It’s a needlessly complicated plot anyway, so why not cut back on the layers and cut back on the dumb?
From the little ,“wouldn’t he recognise them when he wakes up?” to the “Where’s the technology that links them while they’re under, ’cause all I saw was anaesthetic?” - there are holes and inconsistencies everywhere.
There are larger questions, too. Like why do I care if this immoral industrial spy gets the golden fleece, anyway? In fact, I want him to fail. The reason for the heist is entirely unjustifiable.
Of particular disappointment, however, was the bog-ordinary dreariness of the dreamscapes. I was looking forward to lush, changing and imaginative environments, but you should see where our two main characters call home in mental town. It’s at the intersection of Ugly and Boring Streets.
Everyone’s internal landscapes are filled with gun toting baddies. The idea is that the projections of the subconscious try to defend the mind of the invadee with an endless stream of canon fodder. So we know why they're carrying guns, but it could’ve been so much more fun. It’s dull. Who chases bad ideas around with a car and shoots at them? When I have chase scenes in my sub conscious, it’s over giant cat paws onto glass plains that stretch off into infinity and marshmallows. I’m not even recognisably human half the time in my dreams and neither are most other people.. Why not have chocolate mousse fall on the bad guys… followed by sprinkles? I’m pretty sure that Freudians would look at it and wonder where all the sex went, too. For interesting mental landscapes, The Cell was far more engaging.
There are some cool bits. The little kid from Third Rock From the Sun (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a very pleasant surprise and there are some nice suspenseful bits - but with the limitless possibilities open to film makers now, they should’ve gone for the full nightmare.
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