Inception

I've finally watched probably one of the most hyped films of last year. I'm thrilled to say that it in no way let me down. Christopher Nolan's film follows a team lead by Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who work within people's dreams to gain information from them. The film really kicks off when Saito (Ken Watanabe) asks Cobb to plant a thought (to incept) in the mind of an energy tycoon heir Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). However, as the team goes deeper into the subconcious of Fischer, the thoughts of Cobb become ever more entwined.

I don't really want to talk much about the plot, in case there are others who haven't seen Inception either, but I loved the originality of the idea and the fact that you really had to listen; but there was still plenty of action. I'd admit that sometimes watching people explain how the 'dream within a dream' got a little boring, but it was all key to your ultimate understanding of the film. It seems to me quite suprising that Inception got such little recognition from the awards committees-especially in regards to Christopher Nolan not even gaining a nomination at the Academy Awards (I now think him or David Fincher were superior to Tom Hooper's direction), when good direction is why the film never drags, or gets overly complicated.

The performances help this as well. The ensemble cast are uniformly great. Leonardo diCaprio does seem to be bringing an awful lot of his performance in Shutter Island with him to Cobb, but it works. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy both offer strong support, and Ellen Page proves that she can do more than just Juno (although I haven't seen Hard Candy, so I'm sure she's proved it before). Plus, as always, Marion Cottilard is wonderful as Mal.

If you haven't seen Inception yet, I really urge you too. It's a great film, and not as overly complicated as some people have made out (although the ending is a bit...interesting).

Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a 2010 Martin Scorsese-directed film, based on a novel by Dennis Lehane. It follows Teddy Daniels (Leonardo diCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) who got to Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital which is a hospital for the mentally ill. The hospital is run by Dr Crawley (Ben Kingsley), who insists on referring to the inmates (as they are pretty much locked in) as patients. There are there to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Salando, a woman who drowned her three children. However, the investigation seems to hit dead ends when Crawley won't reveal the information that Teddy needs; and Teddy himself becomes plagued with flashbacks of his dead wife Dolores Chanal (Michelle Williams)and the events that happened when he was present at the liberation of one of the concentration camps in Germany, and his investigation into the disapparence of Rachel Salando becomes tied to his personal desire to find Edward Laeddis, the warden of the building that he lived in with Dolores, and who started the fire that killed her.

That's pretty much all I can say about the film without giving it all away. I will just say that nothing is as it seems; and there is a fairly massive twist about 3/4 of the way through the film.

This is the first Scorsese film I've ever watched, so I cannot really comment on whether its style is similar to his previous works or not, similarly, I read a lot of reviews that compared Shutter Island to Hitchcock films, and I've never seen any of those either (based purely on prejudice that I know he Hollywood-fied Rebecca). I do think it was very well shot; the scenes on the Island were good, although my favourite thing about the filming was the flashback/hallucination sequences, which were very well done and left little hints about the twist that was coming. That said, I'm in two minds about said twist. It is surprising, and somewhat heartbreaking when you find it out, but it does seem a little...contrived to make a point about mental illness that I think could I have been explored in a different way.

That being said, the performances were pretty good. This is the first film I've seen with Leonardo DiCaprio in where he plays a proper deep character (I've only seen him in Titanic and Romeo & Juliet) and he was brilliant, especially as Teddy comes closer and closer to the edge. Mark Ruffalo was also good as Chuck, as was Ben Kingsley. I also enjoyed Michelle Williams' slightly deranged appearances and Emily Mortimer's cameo is good as well.

Unfortunately I really can't expand much more on the film, because of it's rather gigantic twist. I think I enjoyed it; although I disliked how the change in plot came from out of nowhere (I'm guessing if I watched it again I could spot points in the story where it was suggested), but that same plot gave DiCaprio the chance to really shine. All in all, I'd recommend it for its quite interesting explorations of mental illness, and its great performances; but I'd advise going into it with an open mind and preparation for it not really being a scary Scorsese film.