inceptional

A tweet this afternoon reminded me that after going to see Inception at the cinema recently, I was all set to write down my thoughts about it.  It’s a couple of weeks on now but it was certainly a film that gave food for a good few days’ thinking.

I’m not going to review it; similarly to many of my blogs this is a more personal response to certain aspects of it.  Suffice to say that I enjoyed it but perhaps not as unreservedly as some.  I didn’t find it particularly confusing, it took an enjoyable amount of concentration to watch and an equally enjoyable amount of disbelief-suspension.  My favourite thing about it was the final moment of the film: I have never before seen the black screen elicit such a universal and audible gasp of frustration and appreciation from its audience.  It reminded me a little of the noise my dog makes when I pretend to throw the ball for him but really hide it behind my back.

So – don’t switch off – to the other part of my response: the female roles.  I was caught in a dichotomy: on the one hand, the film contains strong female characters; on the other, not very many.

I have nothing against nudity or sex scenes in general but how positive to see the main female leads, played by Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard, as fully-fleshed out characters without flashing the, well, flesh.  I had assumed that Page’s character would become a love interest for Leonardo Di Caprio (perhaps as a catalyst for him to leave aside his grief) but aside from a brief kiss with one of the team in a light-hearted moment, she was allowed to get on with her work as a serious member of the team.  Likewise, Cotillard played the beautiful and loving wife but pointed out clearly that this was an idealised, flaw-free version of herself in Di Caprio’s own dreamworld.  Yet the film was sexy, dynamic and stirring to watch without relying on actual sex.

On a more negative note, that was really it for women.  The male actors in the team were bloody brilliant and I would not begrudge a single one his part.  However it would have been so much easier on my eyes to see a few more women on the screen.  If you are a man and are still reading this (hello), I appreciate it might sound a bit picky, but watching a great film and seeing no women in it can make you feel that in some way you’re not welcome. It’s an instinctive response rather than an intentionally arsey one and one that minority ethnic groups can probably relate to.

My other thought was that as a film that seemed to be marketing itself as an intelligent thriller rather than a shoot-em-up, it did seem to tend towards the explosions and violence of the Big Dumb Movie more and more as it progressed.  Again I have nothing against the BDM, I like a good boom-splat-kerpow, I just felt that it ended up with fight after fight and this lost any effect or appeal.  Maybe the (chiefly-male) security dream-team needed something to do.  Or maybe the director was compensating for the lack of the other kind of physical contact.

Either way, I’ll definitely watch Inception again on DVD and I’m sure I’ll get even more from it.  I’ll just have to invite lots of people round to watch it with me so I can recreate that essential gasp-moment as the credits roll.