[psycho d]

Inception (2010). There is no doubt that Inception is one of the better movies coming out of 2010, but the accolades that it has received seem a tad too much. It has all of the elements to make a truly magnificence picture, and its production values alone scooch this up a notch without regard to its other characteristics, but there was a little something missing to consider this as one of the best films ever .

The story was a tightly woven work that requires some gifted detective work in order to expose its plot holes. First, this is the movies folks so the physics of its plot are safe from attack. Working from this, there is some pretty complicated and dicey material that is covered in Inception that never feels contrived or asks the audience to stretch their imaginations past any cinematic barriers. In other words, the story is easily comprehended from the standpoint of its filmatic premise.

The acting was solid on all accounts. Leonardo does a splendid job as usual, but it was nice to see a supporting cast that was just as strong and that did not rely on DiCaprio's skills to carry the whole. The entire ensemble works together to create a larger than life gaggle of denizens. Some complain that there were too many people to keep track of, but at the 148 minute runtime there was plenty of time to figure it all out. On the other hand, there may be something to the fact that the plethora of characters did not allow for enough development of our most significant players, with even Leonardo's Dom remaining distant at the movie's end.

Even with a viciously cerebral premise, kudos go out to the production values. The effects were nothing less than spectacular. The action was plentiful and remained original throughout, although I must admit that I wished that they would have shaved a few minutes off of the third act. I was getting a little itchy to have this one end sooner than it did. There were plenty of scenes that lingered unnecessarily and these could have come to the editors ax without taking anything away from the movie.

The other technicalities were all up to snuff. Nolan has created another spectacular movie that deserves much attention. The camera and such were all used pragmatically without taking the audience's attention away from the action, which was all the more important as any distraction could have easily thrown the viewer into confusion.

My overall impressions of this movie are that it was indeed a monumental production whose ambitions were achieved to the highest movie making degree save one element. What this movie seemed to lack was that ineffable sense of movie magic whose alchemy probably entails a dash of lizard's tail in its inception (ha!). This is not to detract from the movie proper, for it was a terrific endeavor, but to those screaming acclamations that this movie could ever near that monumental list enjoyed by Welles and the like I am sorry, but Inception did not have the all the right stuff to be shelved with the BIG boys. Great yes but exalted, almost.
d