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.

So I caught the Ariadne reference, and Cobb apparently once meant "leader or chief,"

Cobb is also a thief in Following.

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."

Eames. And Robert Fischer.

I found myself holding my breath quite a lot.

Yeah, I was cringing and going nnnnrrrgh as security closed in on the hospital.

Oh, but before that, the fucking train made me jump out of my goddamn seat.

And then, even if everything went right, what if Seito

My thing was that I interpreted the opening scene as reality until I was proven wrong. So I was assuming that Saito lived and Cobb had somehow been abandoned or lost during the mission. It never really occurred to me that Saito wouldn't honor his deal, actually. There were many other components to my tension, but not that one.

This is hilarious - Incepción, starring Dora the Explorer.

Smonster, mainly I'm saying that the symbolism in the Fischer storyline is so trite and cliched that, IMO, it's not a very good story unless there's a meta-reason for it to be that way. I really can't think of a good reason for the snow level to exist AT ALL (Fischer's projection gives him the inception-idea in the hotel, so according to the rules set up before they go in, the mission is complete) unless it's just an excuse for Leo's subconscious to rescue someone else from Limbo.

The fact that we may never see reality at any point in the film doesn't bother me. I'm not sure why it should.

but don't you think that Saito honored his deal regardless? Whether the end means it is real or a dream, Cobb got to be back with his kids.

who's dreaming the snow level

We talked this out today. Here's my understanding:

For each dream, there is an architect, dreamer, a subject, and potentially passengers. The architect designs the dream (and doesn't have to be inside, but can also come as a passenger), the dreamer builds and controls the physicality of the dream, and the subject fills the dream with projections.

For the initial Seito dream, we had two layers: the deepest layer was dreamed by Leo/Cobb/Dom (or maybe Arthur, though since he left the dream and it didn't collapse immediately, I'm thinking Leo, because how could the dream continue if the dreamer wakes up?), but designed by the red shirt, while the apartment with the riot was dreamed AND designed by the red shirt. Arthur was a passenger/assistant. Seito was the subject.

The teaching dreams were initially designed by Leo, and he was the subject (his projections killed Ariadne) but Ariadne was the dreamer and could ignore/change the initial architecture.

The van level was dreamed by random chemist dude. The hotel level was dreamed by Arthur. The snow level was dreamed by Eames. You're not allowed to go deeper if you're the dreamer of the current level, which is why each of those people stayed behind. For all of these, Cilian Murphy was the subject.

At least, that's what I think.

We didn't see the MNS trailer, but we did see one for a new action flick that supposedly stars Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and... Arnold Schwarzenegger? WTF? Shouldn't he be busy fixing California's budget or something?

Some googling has revealed that his role in The Expendables is a cameo, but the trailer made it seem like a major role. What odd marketing.