Every once and awhile I see a film that is both brilliant and entertaining. A film with intricately woven story telling, great acting, and deeply memorable scenes.  I find it fascinating how many of those films are made by Christopher Nolan, and he does it again with Inception.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a man deeply haunted by his relationship with his deceased wife.  He makes his living extracting information from people's subconscious minds while they dream.  Now he's being asked to place a thought, rather than extract one, and thus, where the film gets its clever title.

DiCaprio is amazing as always, and I'm starting to realize, much like Nolan, that he can't make a bad film.  Or at the very least he makes a bad film worth watching.  Gordon-Levitt really is a talent worth noticing as well and he gets some of the best (most creative) action sequences in this film.  Ellen Page is good, but there's nothing new from her here and at times her zero affect thing is less than appealing.  I have trouble really believing her character has any emotion at all, and in this role, I felt like the character could have benefitted with some.

The story telling here is what really stands out and almost overshadows anything else. There were things that I thought were plot holes that after some thought I realized where actually explained (or at least illustrated) brilliantly and with perfect foreshadowing.  To some, this might be a complicated film, but after a lot of analyzing, I have to say it is one of the most well thought out scripts I have seen in years.  And it had the visuals and acting to back it up.

So How Does It End?

Oh, where to begin.  How do you explain the ending to a movie like this?  And I feel bad even spoiling it in writing...but I suppose that's my job, so here goes.  Cobb and his team complete the job of inception and successfully implant the idea.  Cobb also has to face his wife and let go of his guilt.  As a result of both, he is able to return home to his two children and finally, in an emotionally driven, beautifully scored finale, see their faces.

Or does he?  The film ends ambiguously as we watch Cobb's spinning top bobble but continue to spin as the screen cuts to black.  As the story goes, if it never stops spinning, then Cobb is still in a dream and this happy ending is a false reality.

This is one of the most captivating movies I have seen in a long, long time.  I think it's no secret that I absolutely loved it.  I intend to pay and see it again and I give it a strong 5 out of 5.