2010 Dreams and Reel Memories...

Academy Awards is close approaching, while film critics are still arguing what's the best of 2010 I'm already looking ahead to this year silver screen offerings. We seem to have a very interesting line-up for 2011. But before peeking to this year's attractions how about a recap of what 2010 had left us to ponder. There have been only quite a number of crafted films worth remembering. 2010 films left us with unimpressive blockbusters outputs and a lot of lacklusters but what reels really made an impact to movie-buffs like me in 2010?

Topping my list last year, “Inception”.

It’s been a while a film this intellectually stimulating and enticing has been made, adding to my exhilaration is the fact that the movie demands devoted attention and after the course I realized that such exclusivity is indeed required for this film. So my advice to those who haven't watched it, pay close attention so you can keep up with this dream world depiction. A film about dreams that requires you to stay awake because you won't want to miss a second of this brain-twister thought-provoking spectacular.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays a corporate spy Dom Cobb, an industrial espionage expert in "extraction". With the use of CIA-developed technology, an "Extractor" steals corporate secrets by infiltrating his victims’ subconscious. The target, the heir to a corporate dynasty, a multi-billion-dollar energy company. As this feat can't be done by Cobb alone, he assembled a team of con-artists with each apt-role to fulfill. Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s), Cobb’s right-hand, a researcher and Point Man. Ariadne (Ellen Page) the architect to design a maze/labyrinth structure of the dreams. (Tom Hardy) plays Eames, as The Forger. (Dileep Rao) as Yusuf is The Chemist, (Ken Watanabe) as Saito, The Tourist and the one who hired the team and (Cillian Murphy) as Robert Fisher Jr, The Mark billionaire-heir. Like any con-artists, they need to construct a false reality to manipulate or confuse the heir and be persuaded to abdicate his waiting throne, as a lever they used the victim issues with his father (the dying patriarch). To achieve this they need to implant a seed(idea or a thought) through the heir's subconscious.

Sounds easy but not quite, they need to get into a further dream state, penetrate a maze or a labyrinth of dreams within dreams while encountering perilous hazards on every level (the targets are also trained to defend their subconscious) many of them including Cobb’s guilty sub-conscious memories of his wife.

 Photo and defintion courtesy of link : A Totem is an object that is used to
test if oneself is in  one's own reality (dream or non-dream) and not in
another person's dream.

Now let me try to break this down. I had to view the film multiple times to somehow or at least come up with an accurate view or perspective of the film's premise.

There are two sets of people, the ones created the dream and interacting in it while understanding it is an illusion, and the others who are projections in the dream created by the players. These projections never have a knowledge of what is reality, they’ll be deleted when the dreamers wakes up.

The word "Inception" for me is quite similar to the word "Insert". Inserting objects like people, places, things, and events. They are placed in our consciousness for experience, while we are asleep or even awake (Daydreaming) experiencing it vicariously.

Dreaming within a dream process puts them into a deeper state of dreaming. They go through several levels; the deeper they go the further the mind looses its grip from reality. And the deeper they sleep, the more vivid a real-feeling of a dream becomes and the harder they'd be woken up. Then there's the "Kick", a sensation of falling, a physical queue that's supposed to wake them up from the dream. But as the concept suggests, by the time they reach the Limbo state it can be so difficult to wake that even the "Kick" will be not be possible. A dream with vivid real-feeling causes the mind to stop trying to wake at all like slipping into a coma, then the mind accepts the dream as its reality.

The reel made a point that at certain levels of awareness you can die and leave the dream, but as you get deeper, let's say in level 3, you can get lost forever. In the subconscious level, its motivated by emotions not by reason, if you get trapped in your emotions you will never be ready to exit when the dream ends. As what Cobb’s have been trying to do with his guilty emotion of the death of his wife.

In Limbo state, in case a dreamer wakes up he won't remember that there is such a thing as a “real world” – just like in any dream when you wake up in the middle of a scene and simply accept it for what it is. Like the case of Cobb and his wife, they are trapped in a Limbo state where it seemed to be decades and they're unable to let themselves out of the cycle.

Photo inset courtesy of link : Cobb and his Mal in a limbo state where they
seemed trapped in decades

Time is the another variable when you are in a dream state, the deeper you are the faster your mind imagine and perceive things in that dream state. As what we seen in the movie the deeper they go, turns minutes into hours, into days, into years. Such factor was the primary reason why the inception team is able to pull off the Inception job while encountering perilous challenges in defense of their heist act. All events happened within the span of a flight from Sydney Australia to LA.

Many still however wondered how the movie ended. I just realized that most people who saw Inception have already made up their minds about what they perceived the film to be. Some were impressed while some walked away confused, feeling like they had their mind twisted. To those who are confused, there’s evidence on both sides, but neither one can prove one.

But this is how I perceived the ending in my first viewing. 

In the film's climax Mal’s (Cobb's wife) shadow stabs Cobb throwing him back into the Limbo state and to the shores of Saito’s house. When he woke up, his mind is muddled just like Saito’s brain that has aged at this Limbo state. But as they converse they were able to remember the reality existed before the Limbo, through Cobb's "totem" (an object used by extractor to test if oneself is in one's own reality (dream or non-dream) and not in another person's dream) and the phrase "Leap of faith". While both still had deep desires waiting to be fulfilled in real world (Cobb reuniting with this kids and Saito's business) they're able to wake themselves up, could be a gunshot in the head(we saw Saito reaching the gun). Then we have seen Cobb waking up in the plane so I'd say they're back in reality.

But after hearing mixed opinions and theories from friends of how the movie ended, it raised a very confusing question, "Could Cobb still be dreaming?”. What's troubling me in the end is Cobb's kids, they wear the same clothes(which time and time again we saw them in his dreams) in his dreams and in the so-called reality in the end.The images we saw in the plane, could these be just projections of Cobb's dreams?  There was no conversation between the characters after Cobb woke up, all just images to prove our own interpretation. This is what I think the filmmaker purposely have done, leaving the climax in an uncertain or ambiguous state that's open to audience perception of whether he woke up or could be dreaming.

I leave you guys to debate, but for me what is important is the fact that Di Caprio's character, a person who is obsessed with “knowing what’s real” then to ultimately becoming a person who stops questioning and just accepts that what makes him truly happy as what’s real. So which ever state he was in the end as long as he is happy then we can rest the story there.



Photo inset courtesy of link. An example of staircase paradox.

Conceptually the film is brilliant though one can say its just another classic con/heist movie but I'd say it's a step further, creatively they're dream thieves. Though the concept is nothing new either, this concept was first seen in 1984 Sci-Fi film “Dreamscape" but in the age of modern film making I'd say this one standouts in its genre. The special effects are magnificent as well; the dream depictions even overwhelm the story at times.

In the film’s emotional department, some critics commented that the movie lacked in emotion, that it’s more symbolic than a feeling. Leonardo's character may have not made any emotional link to any character in the film but he certainly did made an emotional connection to us audience so that puts the reel not just a clever cerebral game. For me, Leonardo is one of the warmest actor to portray a character, he gave justice in  playing a role of a person who is about to loose his grip with reality, as he carries with him the grief and guilt over the death of his wife and separation from his children. You can see it in every twist and turn in the film’s narrative. So the movie was not all brains after all but with heart as well. '

Now being sensible to the film's premise, this raise some ethical questions in mental/mind rape. I'm not an ethicist but one simply stating a side of opinion.

The acts in the movies centers in or maybe equals to a  mental rape, regardless of the method, extraction or inception. This topic was barely explored or perhaps totally disregarded by the filmmaker. For an instance, Cobb’s desire to reunite with his children as his motivation, doing it even after the epic failure with his wife. I'm not a parent so pardon my parental perspective. But can we applaud and celebrate a father’s love with this?

And how about the victim? The Heir (Fisher) is never shown to be an unethical being, it was not elaborated why they such dominate business(unethical business practice?) and why Saito's company unable to compete fairly. He's simply just rich and unfortunately in Cobb's and Saito's way. Maybe it was a happy ending for him sorting out what his father wants him to be but the act doesn't make it acceptable, The fact that it was fabricated, and the happy ending wasn't fabricated for the sake of his well-being, and it was devised to make him lose billions of dollars to Saito and for Cobb's gains.

On the other hand, if this movie is a hint of advances in neuro-technology/neuro-science then we could be facing enormous moral and social issues. Such advancement poses a tremendous potential threats – and open issues and ethical questions that go to the core of human rights in ways never before imagined. It maybe just our subconscious but the premise suggest that it opens opportunities for someone to predict, possibly control, change our behavior, intelligence and even character.

It is tinkering the very essence of what it means to be us, as human : our brain.

A memorable quote from Cobb “Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on”.