Mister Peace.com

Me: oh… the end of inception? are you asking if the top fell over?

Kate: or if you even think it matters? (cuz i dont…..but maybe thats the existentialist in me squeeing in joy at a film that i thought made is seem that it doesnt, or at least gets you thinking in the vein)

Me: i think it does matter to the character and to the story but the director wants it to be ambiguous so that you can think about YOUR OWN interpretation and you can think about how you’d like it to go… i think it’s absolutely true that the top stops and it has to stop because he’s back to reality… the top could only continue if it were still a dream… he’s rejected the false facade of happiness for something substantial…. painful, yes, but substantial… so it’s essential to the character and the resolution of the story that the top stop spinning… BUT, at the same time, Nolan doesn’t want to come out and hand you that ending like a verdict because it’s also true that there are people in the audience who wanted him to stay with the fictional version of Mal and be satisfied that way… there is that ambiguity because the director wants you to think about what is right instead of preaching it to you but i can’t imagine the story having any meaning if he didn’t wake up and choose life

also, did you say that the film makes it seem like it doesn’t matter? the choice between fantasy and reality is just OK either way? try telling that to Mal… she lost herself in the illusion and it destroyed her because she was never able to accept reality for what it was again

Kate: I dont want to say it doesnt matter cuz yes you have to consider Mal and what happened to her and the consequences those actions… had on the rest of the movie really. I just want to say as far as the ending is concerned….he got to where he wanted to be….a place where he could see his childrens faces again and the fact that the result didnt matter to him at that point….. and its a whole movie about process too

Me: well, his reality matters to him and the top is symbolic of that reality… the symbolism is the main function of the top… i don’t think he literally cared if the thing stopped spinning or not

Kate: nodshrug well yeah

Me: what do you mean when you say the whole movie is about process? that’s interesting

Kate: process? dont you think so?

Me: yes, i think so but what do you mean specifically? the process of something in particular or just systems in the way they function?

Kate: Well a couple ways really, but its most apparent in their goal to implant this idea in Fischer they couldnt just jump in and say “hey, break up your company” there was art and layers and the importance of them all… process of cobb getting back and being able to finally let go of mal… (& marion cotillard? hm? hm? i thought she was so great)

Me: oh, that’s right… yeah, that’s also true… there was a system there… and he bothered to explain it! which blew my mind because it meant that he thought about this and lived with it and planned it all out and then wrote it… that’s incredible to me… that’s so much hard work and planning and thought and it’s so much more satisfying than the lazy method, which is the route the SOPRANOS guys took in their finale yes, nolan goes through the legwork of very detailed processes… i love it for its complexity and that it cares enough to attach some sort of logic system to it…. it was a very densely layered film… yeah, she’s great… she’s a real femme fatale in the classic sense… actually, i was going into it expecting her to be a femme fatale in the classic sense but she’s MORE than that… she is a very nuanced and sad character… she is tragic

Kate: I know right?! Can you believe that…his structure and logic in this was actually a criticism of the film? I know im drawing lines from the ebert article i read earlier today but this wasn’t about the limitlessness of the dream word and all its crazy possibilities i mean, the people in this film had a very specific goal that would take a little bit of construct and order i think so anyway… and yes, tragic when it comes to Mal. And she was able to bring that in even when she got to be a little scary at points…

Me: right… i mentioned david lynch… his movies are completely brilliant and this isn’t a criticism but his dream-reality doesn’t seem to have any system to it… it’s more loosey-goosey and disturbing that way…. just a different approach to formalism, i suppose… i think Mal was this movie’s Harvey Dent… i think a few of Nolan’s films kind of sync up in terms of thematic content… i mentioned how this movie kind of relates back to MEMENTO… he’s talking about memory and the way we perceive reality and whether or not it’s ok to manipulate those things… well, there’s a thread between this and THE DARK KNIGHT, too, and that is both of those movies deal with the conflict between the Perfect Ideal and the Pragmatic Compromise… the perfect ideal was when he created his own reality for his wife but it fell apart… the pragmatic compromise was the loss of her at the end… similarly, harvey dent was the idealist whose goodness and purity had to be sacrificed for the sake of the pragmatic compromise… both movies needed that tragic sacrificial lamb to prove that reality demands we bend our notions of idealism a bit… and it’s tragic… in both cases, it was tragedy… i think aaron eckhart as harvey dent was one of the tragic performances i’ve seen… his fall from grace is heartbreaking

Kate: Thats a very very lovely correlation there sir…..im impressed…you;re very perceptive im not sure i would have really compared the 2.. Mal and Dent but i like that, its works…yes

Me: thank you i appreciate that… i’ve seen THE DARK KNIGHT so many times and I think it’s underrated in terms of depth… it’s very much about the balancing act between those two notions: the perfect ideal and the pragmatic compromise… dent being the former and batman being the latter… even the title is an allusion to dent’s downfall (he was once called the white knight of gotham or something like that) and Batman’s need to stay in the shadows to remain effective… and with Mal, she died because she refused to let go of a vision of reality that was perfect but it was untrue… THAT, i think, is the fundamental message of the movie… for cobb, his kids matter more than the comforting lie