Usually when a studio spends nearly $100 million on advertising a film, building the hype for weeks ahead of its official release with viral ad campaigns, constant trailers, and guest appearances with every television talking head willing to give up the air-time, it’s wise to be wary. We’ve all been burned before by a film billed as the “greatest show on Earth,” finding out eight buck too late that it can’t measure up to the ballyhoo. So I was decidedly nervous about Inception.

I needn’t have been. After all, this is a Christopher Nolan film (Memento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight), and Christopher Nolan, apparently, can’t miss. Like the Pixar of live-action films, Nolan seems utterly incapable of failure.

And this is his best work yet.

In fact, Inception is one of those rare movie events that only come by once per decade or so; one of those films you see and you know: this film will be studied in college film classes around the world someday; perhaps soon. This film will make hundreds of millions of dollars, win countless awards, and change the conversation in America forever.

Like Star Wars, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings before it, Inception will likely define, or at least divert, an entire era in cinema, changing the way stories are told and giving birth to a slew of copy-cat films attempting to capitalize on both its popularity and brilliance.

It is an instant classic, a film you will want to see repeatedly, then own on Blue Ray; tatoo on your mind in permanent ink.

Because Inception is a nearly flawless film, across the board, with greater depth and breadth than most modern film-makers could dream of bringing to the screen over the course of years. Compared, rightly, to The Matrix, Inception plumbs the depths of the human mind, and forces the viewers to come along for the ride, leaving a nagging feeling of discontent about the “real world” in their minds, and raising questions that seem to have no satisfying answers.

Breaking, then rebuilding, our understanding of reality, Nolan turns the world in which we live on its end, and asks us to consider the very nature of reality.

And he does it with such visual splendor and technical panache that we willingly take the journey, oohing and ahhhing at the incredible display on-screen until it’s too late for us, and we’ve been thoroughly hooked.

Telling the tale of Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an expert at entering shared dream space to infiltrate the mind and extract its secrets, Inception builds a multi-layered dream world of deep complexity and beauty. After the death of his wife, he becomes an outlaw on the lam, running from country to country, working as a mental mercenary for the highest bidder.

But when he meets the mysterious Saito (Ken Watanabe) he’s offered the chance to expunge his record and return to the United States, and to his children. This proves an offer impossible to resist, plunging Cobb and his team into a nightmare journey through the depths of the human mind, and nearly costing them all their lives.

With a soaring, pitch-perfect score by the brilliant Hans Zimmer, (Black Hawk Down, The Lion King), and sound editing that will surely ring in the ears of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, this film is worth seeing for its spectacle of sound alone. Add to that Nolan’s incredible use of color as metaphor, his magnificent, emotionally saturated cinematography, and an incredible script that somehow manages to make sense of an impossibly complex storyline, and Inception enters the rarefied air of the greats of classic cinema.

And all this without mentioning the master performances of an exceptional cast, lead by Leonardo DiCaprio, who has finally (hopefully) earned the Academy Award denied him for Titanic. Ken Watanabe (Memoirs of a Geisha) turns in a wonderful performance as well, while the inimitable Marion Cotillard (La vie en rose) is both beautiful and truly terrifying.

Cillian Murphy’s moving performance as the subject of the titular inception is tender and thoughtful; the glue that makes the film work in the end.

With stunningly beautiful, yet attenuated, use of special effects, and an incredible story arc that will have you questioning life for days to come, this is a must-see film. Inception will go down as a game-changing moment in cinema. And the best part is, you can have a front row seat for the show.

—gparker@vernal.com

Should I let my children see this film?

Inception is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout. There is little swearing and virtually no sex. There is violence, and it is pervasive. However, in the context of the film, the vast majority of the violence is not against humans, but only mental projections within the minds of humans. Additionally, it is not bloody or gory in any way. Yes, mentally projected people get shot and die, so to speak. But if your child is old enough to grasp the subtlety of the films themes, they should be able to understand the distinctions being made. That said, this is not a film for young children. Nor is it a film for those suffering with severe depression or suicidal tendencies. The film’s themes are sometimes quite dark, asking the viewer to consider the nature of reality itself. If your child is over 13 years old and mentally stable, they should enjoy the film greatly, however.

Should I see this film?

Unequivocally, yes! This is a rare film, a groundbreaking film, a must-see film. Not seeing Inception would be like not seeing Star Wars in 1977, or not seeing Titanic in 1997, or not seeing The Matrix in 1999. It’s a game-changing, mind-bending film that nearly everyone will love.