Inception

When I saw the previews of Inception, it looked like a complex plot a la The Matrix which might require a bit too much thinking to appreciate. Then I started hearing glowing reviews, one person proclaiming it the best movie of the year. That made it worth at least a look.

Pretty good!

As far as I know this is an original idea rather than a reused version of an old Hollywood story. Space-age technology enables crafty criminal artists to enter the dreams of people en route to accessing their hidden thoughts. The story of Leonardo DiCaprio's character follows his singular goal to be reunited with his children, after a dream-related mishap leads to the death of his wife and casts him as a fugitive from justice.

Ellen Page plays a winning support role as a talented architect of dreams, who ultimately gets closer to DiCaprio's life mystery and plays a daring role in the climactic scene.

Eventually, DiCaprio's team dives several "levels" into the mind of a wealthy heir to a family business, who himself becomes a brave part of the action within his own dream. The task - DiCaprio's ticket to absolution - is to create "inception." That is, to implant a thought into the heir's mind while tricking him into thinking that it was his own idea.

The web is tangled. Eventually some of the team is hanging out at higher dream levels while others dive more deeply, and trying to keep straight their exit strategy takes some doing by the viewer. But the characters are likable, and the good guys all get their prizes at the end. Catch it if you can!