“Oh, it makes you think!” people raved. Really? Do you really think this movie called for that much thinking? Because when I was in college, one of the number one rules when writing fiction was to NEVER write “and then I woke up!” You don’t write “Everything Was Just a Dream” stories or movies. That’s why that horrible movie, Next, was so awful. I don’t care if you wake up from said dream or not; if it’s not happening, it’s really not worth telling about. You can write about it in your journal or you can call up a psychic to have it analyzed; just don’t bore us to pieces by making a movie about it.
And that’s exactly how my husband and I felt—bored out of our minds. There was too much snow, too many slow-mo scenes, too many parts that dragged on and on and on… And we’re not even DiCaprio haters! (I’ve found that most people who don’t like the movie claim it’s because they don’t like Leo.)
The acting was, ah, so-so. I liked Cillian Murphy, oddly enough, the most; the rest of the cast seemed very one-dimensional, which is no surprise, since it was all a damn dream, and nobody mattered. In fact, if anyone complains about people being one-dimensional, the creators could easily just say, “Hey, they’re supposed to be; it’s all a dream!”
Yeah, that’s not a “smart movie,” or even an engaging one. It’s lazy, is what it is. The Matrix was much more successful at what I guess Nolan was trying to get across here.
If you want a good thinking movie, you could try my husband’s favorite movie, The Game. A couple of my favorite thinking movies are Mystic River, Little Children, Winter’s Bone, and The Silence of the Lambs. Hell, Law Abiding Citizen, one of the most horribly titled movies ever, is better than Inception in terms of making you think—and as a bonus, you get Gerard Butler! (I realize that most of my selections are gory, gloomy, or both; I guess I just like films that make you think AND that are sad.)
I think knowing that Christopher Nolan was at the helm made it even more disappointing, since I normally love his work. Oh, well, at least I watched it and it’s over with, and, unlike so many awestruck folks who are so enamored with the movie, I didn’t even have to pinch myself.