Dreaming Through Inception

I'd overheard a bit of Dicaprio talking about Inception - something about knowing what is real and what isn't.  Then a friend strongly recommended the movie, especially considering that this blog sometimes addresses the question What is Real?  

We saw it last night and I didn't think I'd post about it since its treatment of what is real seemed pretty superficial.  This was not the Matrix by any stretch.  But today there are a couple of NY Times articles on nightmares. (Guiding Your Sleep While You’re Awake
and Following a Script to Change a Nightmare).  The movie Inception mostly takes place in people's dreams and  both pre-dream guiding goes on and in dream script following occurs.

The movie is NOT a must see I'm afraid.  It carried on its conceits far longer than I needed and managed to slip in various cliche Hollywood action such as car chases and explosions.  The main idea was slim and lots of suspension of disbelief is required.  There's also a fair amount of head scratching.

That said, it did engage me to the extent that when we walked for dinner afterward we did continue discussing the movie and its various feints and sleights, and  made lame jokes about what level of dreaming we were currently in. But ultimately none of us felt we'd gotten any great insights and we agreed it went on far too long.

The two New York Times articles linked above are much more worth one's time if you want to know something about dreaming and they both also reference the movie Inception. 

If you got this far, you'll notice I gave virtually nothing away, nor did the movie inspire me to pursue some theme or idea raised.  Despite the hype, this is Hollywood entertainment, not the kind of movie that raises important issues.