EW’s annual summer preview has brought us another look at Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Ellen Page in Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated, metaphysicial heist flick “Inception.”
The film is noted as centering on “a group of freelance dream thieves who steal people’s ideas for corporate gain by inserting themselves into stranger’s subconscious while they are sleeping. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, the group’s leader, who agrees to take on one last job — an extremely dangerous one that could reunite him with the family from whom he’s long been separated.” That’s a nod to Marion Cotillard‘s character. Spoilers about her character were revealed in a recent L.A. Times piece if you want to know more.
Despite everything we’ve learnt so far of the perplexing story, DiCaprio goes on to (attempt to) assure us that “it’s not a rug-pulling, twisty, turny sort of film. It’s not a film that confuses people.”
“There are no giant flowers or pink clouds in Chris Nolan’ dreamworld,” the actor continues. “Chris was very adamant that the dream world should feel real, and even if these are different layers of one’s consciousness, it all relates back to that person. So we took a hard look at every scene in this movie and made sure it had validity and weight to it, no matter what was going on.”
DiCaprio also described the film’s toggling between dream states and reality while globe jumping from Morocco, Tokyo, London and beyond as “a collage” in which various landscapes “all blend together and intersect.” Doesn’t sound confusing at all, does it?
Co-star Page, who plays an intern in DiCaprio’s team of “dream thieves,” was a bit more taken back by the story calling it “the craziest shit I’ve ever done. After I read the script, I was sweating, I was so exhilarated. There were moments when I was pinching myself that I was involved with this Chris Nolan film. The stuff he does is going to blow people’s minds. It definitely blew mine.”
“Inception” hit theaters July 16th hopefully still under the relative cloud of secrecy that shrouds it today. It’s been a while since audiences been kept this in the dark about a blockbuster film, with the hype surrounding its mystery seemingly what Nolan had hoped for.
“We just want to keep something fresh,” director Nolan concludes. “It was very difficult making a large scale film under the glare of attention. Anything we can do to shield the process from outside scrutiny is valuable. When it’s finished, it’s there for people to rip to pieces and judge.”