Infinite Style

As you can see on the last post I immediately ran out and bought Inception this weekend. I think the film holds up pretty well on the second viewing. After seeing it in the cinema I was worried about how it would hold seeing it multiple times since the film is mostly an explanation of the dream world and all the rules that are attached to it. 

One interesting thing to do on the second viewing is to watch the film under the assumption that Mal was right and Cobb never really woke up from his dream. Watching the film under this pretense and you pick up on a lot of interesting things. 

Right before going to Mombassa Cobb tells Ariadne that in a dream you are never going somewhere, you simply are at the place. He then is shown in Mombassa, but not his actual journey there. While in Mombassa when they go to see the sedative in action, the old man in the basement tells Cobb that “their dream is their reality.” Is Cobb’s dream his reality?

Another interesting thing about watching the film under the presumption that Cobb is dreaming the entire time is that a lot of the minor characters have more motivation to them. One thing you could nitpick about when watching the film the first time was that they sub-characters had no depth to them. They are in the film simply to advance the story and have no real story of their own. If Cobb is dreaming the entire time, then everyone is only a part of his subconscious and only exists to help him deal with his guilt and feelings.