‘Inception’ is the rare summer film: smart and intelligent

My dreams are boring.

At least they are compared to those in "Inception," the fantasy thriller from director Chris Nolan ("The Dark Knight").

In the film, dreams are nothing but canvases on which to paint grand scenarios, undergo massive heist operations and exploit the human subconscious.

There are gunfights, momentary lapses of gravity, high-speed car chases and even trains running through city centers.

Oh, and cities can fold over on themselves.

My dreams, however, are far less complicated.

Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an "Extractor" – someone who invades dreams and steals ideas.

With a team, Cobb is able to invade a person's mind when it's at its weakest, when the subconscious is at its most vulnerable.

After a routine heist goes awry, DiCaprio, together with his researcher or "Point Man" Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are led into the ultimate dream-based operation – putting an idea into a person's mind.

The film's titular moniker refers to the ability to plant the seeds of an idea into a person's mind and make it convincing enough the target thinks it is their own thought.

Unfortunately, Cobb is dealing with his own demons, which are fighting against him in the dream world.

(Take a sip of your soda every time you hear the word "dream.")

Arthur and Cobb assemble a team of those familiar with the invasion of dreams, including a "Forger," someone who impersonates key figures in a target's memory (Tom Hardy).

Though no dream can be realized without an architect – someone to design and create a world to make the heist possible.

Ariadne (Ellen Page) is recommended by Cobb's father-in-law (Michael Caine) as a brilliant candidate for the job – even better than Cobb himself once was.

Early reviews have summarized the movie as "James Bond"meets "The Matrix."

There are certainly elements of both (fights with little gravity and action sequences on snowy hillsides), but it's much more than that.

Like "The Dark Knight," "Inception" is a movie that lives long before its first viewing.

It's a smartly constructed, intelligent thriller that is as complicated as the artificial worlds designed to make the extraction of ideas possible.

It's also superbly acted, delivering not only another great performance by DiCaprio but two surprise performances by Page and Gordon-Levitt.

This is a new kind of movie for both of them, and both rose to the challenge.

Nolan is exploiting a very sensitive part of the human condition: the dream.

Our dreams say a lot about us, with many speculating the dream is crucial to understanding what we can't comprehend in the real world – from the subtle remark of a co-worker to the grander implications of an action or decision.

Here, Nolan channels the inner demons we all have and personalizes them – "projections" of our subconsciousness fill dreams and populate them.

We are at our most naked in our dreams and Nolan knows this. It's more disturbing than Freddie Krueger running rampant because our own demons define us.

The movie is also aided by a haunting soundtrack, one that should be mandatory in every dream to make them seem much more important.

"Inception" is quite possibly the most rewarding movie of the summer.

It's smart, well executed and finely acted.

Unless it was just a dream.
 

5 stars out of 5