Inception

Whew! What a ride! This 2-1/2 hour film flew by, and though the plot and action can seem (and sound) complicated, if you really pay attention - not hard to do - it all hangs together and can be followed without confusion. The story takes place in a future where people can be put to sleep and hooked up in some bizarre way so that they share dreams. And the main character in the film has perfected a system where he and a group of fellow operators use this method to extract information from someone's mind, a form of corporate espionage; not only that, he also claims to a potential "employer" to be able to plant an idea into someone's mind in such a way that that person believes it's his own idea. So the film follows them as they attempt to carry this out. And yes, there are lots of action scenes: things blowing up, impossible gun battles, but because they're taking place in a dream with no attempt to make them seem possible, they didn't bore or bother me the way these kinds of scenes in traditional action movies usually do. As well as the story itself, it's about dreams and reality, what's real and what isn't, how can you tell the difference. These questions are somewhat similar to what's presented in the wonderful 2001 Richard Linklater film Waking Life, though Inception doesn't have the philosophical/spiritual feel of that one. Rather, this one has a much more cerebral feel, and so the pleasure and admiration I experienced were intellectual rather than emotional, and as well, I have great appreciation for Christopher Nolan's skill as a director. He has definitely lived up to my enjoyment of his previous films Memento and The Prestige. He also has directed two of the Batman films, most famously The Dark Knight. Though the only character that brought out some emotional or heartfelt connection was the main character's wife, played by Marion Cotillard, I still felt this was an excellent film.

The Messenger

As the only film about the Iraq war I was interested in seeing, for the most part it didn't disappoint. Actually, it's about a lot more than the Iraq war. Excellently acted by Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson (who won a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his role) and Samantha Morton, the basic story revolves around two soldiers whose job is to inform a family member of the death of their son, daughter, husband or wife. Watching this film was mesmerizing and heart-wrenching: people being overcome by emotions, as you'd expect, as well as the stoic following of the military rules of non-involvement (just being a messenger) by the two soldiers and the effect of that on them. So this film is really about the overall result of war and the military life in general to soldiers who've come home from fighting as well as their families. As one of the soldiers says "They should show the funerals on TV". There were a few drunken buddy scenes later in the film that didn't seem as real to me, but maybe they would to a man or a soldier.