Inception is a synonym for Beginning.

For me, Monday nights often present the best times to attend a movie at the local theater. The main reason is because it seems that there are generally less people out and about on a Monday. (Perhaps they are still recovering from the previous weekend’s excesses or are just too tired from getting back to work to leave the house.) No matter why the dearth of people, it always equals less of a chance that someone will be rude, talk too much, or bring their unwanted and obnoxious children to the theater and ruin the film.

Why are you even here?

“Why are you going see kids’ movies all the time,” you might ask, perhaps confused as to why there are so many children in the theaters where I see movies.

“I am not going see kids’ movies every time curious and outspoken stranger,” I would retort. “Just Toy Story 3 so far this summer, and besides, I have found that in their own ignorance people will often bring their kids to “adult’ movies. I cannot fathom why this happens but it does and it pisses me off greatly. So I try to go see movies on Mondays any time I can to avoid a lot of people and the baggage that comes with being around the general, common sense-free public.”

So, this past Monday, I went and saw the one movie I have been waiting all summer for, Inception. This was the one movie that was not Toy Story 3 that instantly perked my interest when I saw the trailers for it.

I have read a lot of mixed feelings on this film, most of them positive for a multitude of reasons. Some critics say that it was a godsend and a boost to the rather dull summer movie season while others rag the film for being implausible or too incoherent.

Well I am here to tell that this movie is all three of those things and possibly more. There is no quick explanation of what happens in the movie, which is great because now you have to go see it. Isn’t that why movies are made I ask rhetorically?

As Roger Ebert said in his review, the movie also cannot be spoiled. If anyone were to tell you the end, you would just stare slack-jawed because you would not understand what this movie spoiling dolt of a so-called “friend” is talking about. Yet to try and explain the movie will leave you desperate for more than a retelling can offer.

I cannot remember the last time a movie fully engrossed me in every aspect of it the way Inception did. From the beginning to the very end and well beyond the credits, I was totally wrapped up in the story. There was a complete loss of elapsed time while watching the movie, which is a quality of dreams that is pointed to a few times during the movie itself. This is a happy coincidence because at a running time of 2 hours and 28 minutes I need to lose track of time or I will lose track of my mind sitting in a theater for that long.

Some people have said that they had trouble following the movie but I found the opposite to be true. Yes, this movie is driven by a plot more complex than Fermat’s Last Theorem, but director Christopher Nolan seamlessly moves the movie along so that you are able to stay focused on the over-arching goals of the film without getting bogged down in the minutia of a multi-layered plot. It is expertly done and I recommend this film for all aspiring writer/directors, M. Night Shyamalan comes to mind, as a clinic on how to move a movie along no matter how complicated the details might be.

Oh, and to the claims of this piece of cinematic fiction being implausible, well of course it is implausible. First of all, it is a piece of fiction writing put on screen for our visual delight. Secondly, it is set in another reality or sometime in the future (it is never clear which) so the implausible is plausible in that sense and are you such a hater that you can’t appreciate anything.

(In an effort at full disclosure, I am as guilty as the next person of looking at some movies and saying, “Come on, there is no way that would happen in real life.” But I have realized over the years that the beauty of most movies is that they stem from the imagination of their creators and we want to be taken into a world where the impossible is possible.)

Besides, I never heard anyone complain that what happens in those godforsaken Twilight movies, or in Avatar, or in the innumerable hours of crap that filmmakers throw at us every year is implausible. Yet, people go and see those films and even love them to an obnoxious, nerve grating level. Either way, the fact that the movie is implausible does not merit a “would not recommend” review. If that were the case then almost all films would be subject to adverse critiques.

If you were going to use my money to go see a movie this summer I would stipulate that it must be Inception. You will not regret being treated to one of the best, most innovative stories Hollywood has put on film in some time. Oh, and while you are there I will spring for Toy Story 3 because I love it and it deserves a viewing for totally different, yet equally compelling, reasons.

Here is the trailer if you still need to be further convinced: