by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine

Movie: Inception
Genre: SciFi
Rating 4-1/2 stars out of 5

If you haven’t seen Inception yet, then get ready to have your mind boggled. While the movie isn’t difficult to follow, it does take a while to sort out, and I’m still sifting through it this morning after seeing it last night.

Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is a man with a dark past which is slowly revealed throughout the movie. He works in dream corporate espionage – obtaining corporate secrets through the experience of shared dreaming. He is also a fugitive expat, unable to return to the United States without facing charges for killing his wife.

Cobb meets Saito (Ken Watanabe), a powerful and wealthy Japanese businessman who wants Cobb to use his gifts in a different way – inception, or the process of implanting an idea through shared dreaming. Saito promises that if Cobb can plant an idea in the subconscious of the son of his chief business rival, he will make sure that all of Cobb’s problems in the US will disappear and Cobb will be able to return home to his children.

Cobb and Saito assemble a team and begin to plan the process of inception by creating a three level dream within a dream within a dream scenario in order to plant Saito’s idea.

At its heart, Inception centers on a theme common in movies – the long con. Where it is brilliant, however, is in its implementation. It weaves together multiple layers into a single, complex story line that will leave you thinking about it long after you’re done watching the movie.

The movie is well acted by a terrific cast – Ellen Page, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Dileep Rao play the inception team convincingly, and each moves the action forward well.

Inception isn’t mindless escapism. There is a lot here that will leave you wondering about the nature of dreams and the nature of reality. It is well worth the price of admission, however. Inception will keep your mind spinning, long after you leave the theater.

Enjoy Karen’s reviews? Karen’s new book, Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington> is now available. Click here to buy.