10K!

I like this Rao character! I don't remember him in Avatar, but I did like him in Drag Me to Hell.

And, Jessica, I agree with you that if it's all a dream, the top-signifier doesn't mean anything. But I don't see enough evidence that the WHOLE thing was a dream. Like Rao says, in that viewing, we never see the real Cobb, the actual reality, the final layer. There aren't any hints that the reality layer in the film is a dream, as far as I can tell. Besides the very on-the-nose names. Also, if the other characters are just projections, how do they go deeper into the dream layers with him? You basically don't have to believe anything said in the movie at ALL if it's all a dream. Personally, I don't find that interpretation satisfying. But if people do, that's cool, and it's to Nolan's credit that he made a movie where IT'S ALL A DREAM does work. (Also, ha, if the top-signifier doesn't mean anything, that final shot is meaningless and signifies nothing! You can't have it both ways!)

Um, I just got to this part in that article:

It's like people who are convinced 9/11 is an inside job.

And you know what, fuck him. Speculating about psychological levels of reality in a movie that's about psychological levels of reality is like being a 9/11 truther? I'm calling this interview Godwin'ed and ignoring it.

For me, if it's NOT all a dream, then it's an unbelievably boring heist movie. I can't accept that the Fischer storyline really is what it's presented as, because the resolution is just too stupid for that.

OTOH, I felt the same way about A Beautiful Mind and the last season's premiere of House, and both of those turned out to take place in reality, so....

Whereas I thought the heist was exciting and really liked the Fischer storyline, unexpectedly caring for his character by the end.

Right now, I'm reading the Salon recap. I think they did this with Donnie Darko too, so I'm interested to see how they unpack it.

Strega, if you haven't read the Salon recap, you should, since they agree with you on the meta-commentary. At least skip down to the Q&A.

They (and whoever wrote the IMDb FAQ) disagree with Rao on who's dreaming the snow level. Ariadne's question about whose subconscious they're going into (which drew a laugh from the audience) was answered "Fischer," so I thought it was Fischer's dream, but then again I thought it was all Fischer's dream, as I forgot how everything worked and all the dreaming and controlling and whatever. I think it does make more sense for Eames to be the dreamer since he's on the team; they're still using Fischer's subconscious, always.

I did like how they explained their notion that Inception is not actually a movie about dreams.

Angelina Jolie talks about keeping Salt from becoming pretty.

I realise I'm irritated by the idea that there's something wrong for a female action hero to use her femininity. Why? Is it inappropriate for a woman to be feminine and an action hero?

I do think it often lapses into seductress cliche--but that's not what was stated in the article as what was being avoided. I'm trying to imagine a male action hero avoiding using his masculinity. The hell? He doesn't have to leave his gender at home, or make excuses for it.

okay, FWIW - and I have to see the movie again, I got triggers in my head about something weird was going on in the movie around the time that Ariadne showed up. I took just about everything at face value until Cobb's interactions with her. What triggered me is that she seemed to either be wearing the same clothes or wearing the exact same color palette several different times we saw her across different scenes. I don't know what that means if anything, but that struck me as strange in the movie theater.

I think it means that the latter half of the movie was an intervention, perhaps started in the plane. I note that Ariadne was the character that got Cobb to tell all of his secrets. She seemed to function like an alter who was always reasonable all of the time. So perhaps the intervention started back in Japan and Watanabe's character had been involved all along.

smonster and I went to see Inception last night with some friends and the exact same thing happened in our theater during the Devil trailer when M. Night Shyamalan's name came up! It's a nationwide phenomenon of disappointment.

When the title flashed on the screen, I leaned over to amyth and whispered, "I think I know what the twist is."

I loved Inception so much I went home and burbled into my iPhone voice memo function for 20 minutes. Maybe that will turn into a long dw post, maybe not. I thought it was very cool the way that Nolan exploited the idea that movies are like shared dreams. Time distortion, hyperrreality, etc. And I swear that when the end credits transition to rolling credits, there's the sound of a spinning top and a heartbeat. BUT, I don't necessarily believe that Dom is still in the dream. I think that it's supposed to be ambiguous, or maybe it's just a hat tip to the fact that the movie, and therefore the dream the audience is sharing, is ending .

Jessica, I'm not sure I understand your objection. Are you saying that Dom/Mal can be the dominant story only if he's still dreaming? Why? For me, that's the story that matters, the *real* story, no matter what the end means .

I will admit that that as soon as we hit the snow phase, I thought, "And here's the James Bond portion of the movie." The overall banality of the dreams didn't bother me - it worked within the logic of the movie .

It was kind of amazing how much the tension got ratcheted up since at least in theory, something could go wrong on any one of the levels and screw everything up . I found myself holding my breath quite a lot. And then, even if everything went right, what if Seito couldn't or wouldn't honor his bargain ?

I did kind of feel like Cillian Murphy was slightly wasted in the role, not to mention Caine and Postlethwaite .

So I caught the Ariadne reference, and Cobb apparently once meant "leader or chief," and Mal is kind of obvious... are there other names with significance? I searched for Seito and found these (all in one post - depends on kanji): "Pupil" "Path of life" "expedition" "Star" (in the sky) "Adherent."

I realise I'm irritated by the idea that there's something wrong for a female action hero to use her femininity. Why? Is it inappropriate for a woman to be feminine and an action hero?

I was most annoyed by the producer in that article. Without seeing the movie, I feel like I don't have a good grasp on what changed and what was left.