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INCEPTION SPOILERS BELOW. SERIOUSLY...DO NOT READ ANY MORE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW PLOT POINTS IN THIS FILM.

Kim Hollis: For those of you who have seen Inception, what did you think about the film? What criticisms do you have of it? Who do you think offers the best/worst performance? How do you feel about the ending?

Josh Spiegel: I loved it (and am lucking into seeing it again today). I was biased towards enjoying it, but the more I think about the movie, the more I'm admiring how ingeniously plotted it was. There were various moments (the fight scene in the hotel with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the kick that comes in three levels at the end of the climax) that were as iconic as the interrogation scene in Dark Knight, or even bullet time in The Matrix. What's more, Nolan manages to provide lots of hints early on without making it fully clear, or at least providing said hints to make audiences appreciate it more as time goes on. If I had a criticism (and perhaps something I'll feel more certain on after a second viewing), it's that the first hour of the film, being the set-up, isn't as wildly exciting as the following 90 minutes. The only other criticism I have may be a fault of the theater I saw the film at (though I've heard the complaint elsewhere): I couldn't understand half of what Ken Watanabe said. Not sure if that'll change with a better sound system.





Among the performers, I'm not sure there's a weak link; Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, and Pete Postlethwaite don't have much to do, but that's not a fault. One performer I haven't seen singled out much is Cillian Murphy, whose big moment at the end was more affecting than I'd have expected. Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard were both very good; Page needs a better agent, though, because she should be billed second, not fourth; she is in far more of the movie than I would have guessed. Not a bad thing, but worth pointing out.

The ending is something I'm still puzzling over (as it should be, I'm sure). My initial assumption is that the final five minutes of the movie, from when Cobb wakes up on the plane, is a dream, as evidenced by the still-spinning top. Could it be real? Sure, and that wouldn't take away from my enjoyment of the film. However, there are solid arguments for it being a dream: the kids are wearing the same clothes, look the same age as they did in the flashbacks, and the grandmother (who we hear on the phone at the beginning) is conspicuously absent. If only because my brain was worn from this movie, I didn't fully connect the last shot to the last bit of Blade Runner, one of Nolan's favorite films, but the connections are there. Great movie, and a movie that I want to see again (as opposed to need).

Tom Houseman: If you want my thoughts on Inception, read my review that's so glowing you might go blind reading it. Suffice it to say, there are only two movies I have gone out of my way to see more than once in theaters (I was dragged to second viewings of the third Pirates and X-Men movies, so I don't count those). Inception will very likely join Little Miss Sunshine and The Dark Knight on that list.

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