An ending that caused the whole theatre to gasp. I will not spoil it by giving any further details, but I must question whether the ending of Inception is just a puzzle for the sake of a puzzle. I suppose this kind of ending could leave one to posit that the movie is up for our interpretation, but is it true? In the creation of a movie, aren't we as viewers trapped in the structure of the director, screenwriter, cinematographer and all others who helped in its fabrication, much as the characters in Inception were trapped in the architecture of their constructed dreams?

I actually really enjoyed the film, it was extremely entertaining. A little confusing at points, too many layers of dreams, but what can one do. I have always been interested in whether multiple people could share dream space. I hadn't ever entertained the idea however that one would do this to find out a person's secrets or to plant ideas in their heads. I do wonder though why in this portrayal of shared dreams characters had to protect themselves with guns and grenades, it seems there should be a more imaginative way of protecting one's subconscious. 

For those unfamiliar with the premise of the film, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a man at the fringes of society who has skills in shared dreaming and uses these skills to discover people's secrets. He is hired to perform a slightly different objective, to plant an idea in a man's subconscious while dreaming and which the man will think is his an idea of his own. He gathers a team, they prep, plan and prepare, and then enter the dream world that their architect (Ellen Page) has constructed for them. The man has been trained to defend his subconscious and so the group finds it more difficult than expected. This combined with Cobb's own guilty subconscious creates many obstacles.

The film is action-packed, has a stellar cast, and was fun, but I am still left somewhat unsatisfied by the ending. It is very similar to the way I remember feeling after watching Memento, although after so much time has passed I cannot quite recall what it is about that movie that made me feel this way. Maybe it is a movie that doesn't have a good ending so Nolan leaves it for the viewer to decide. Does Cobb live happily ever after? Has the worst case scenario happened? Was it all just a dream? Does it even matter? Or is it just something to keep us occupied, complacent, thinking about the puzzle rather than anything of importance.

My boyfriend asked me when we left the theatre if I had any criticism or issue with the film. Apparently, I often will sit through a movie and then have to question everything about it. I wasn't able to come up with anything last night, but maybe it was the late hour. Sitting here now, I want to question the film's gender roles. Cobb's dead wife being a classic hysterical female. The hero, a classic noir type protagonist who lives by his own rules. And depending on how the ending is read, the movie can completely uphold an oppressive patriarchal viewpoint, in which the weak woman, unable to maintain her mental capacity because of some inner secret is destroyed and the man that tries to save her, is unable to and then feels intense guilt and overcompensates instead of being honest with people. If the roles are reversed however and I am not sure I can adequately describe this without giving away too much, then Cobb becomes the hysterical character who has lost his grip on reality long before the movie even begins.

This last paragraph seems a bit confusing. I have to go to work and do not have the time to further investigate now, but will continue to write another day. And I do recommend seeing Inception. See what you think.