It's just a dream, or is it?

MANILA, Philippines - I became seriously interested in the topic of dreams when I was a college student at the U.P. Diliman. In my Psychology class, the professor introduced me to Sigmund Freud who, we all learned, made dreams and dreaming the cornerstone of his researches in psychoanalysis. The movie Inception is all about dreams, but it takes us one step further. The movie tells us that with the help of gadgets and advanced technology, an idea can be implanted in the mind of a person through a dream and the dream sequence controlled. After watching the movie, you begin to think. Will it be possible for several people to dream the same dream? Can a dream sequence be planned and the desired outcome achieved?

It is no wonder that Inception is a worldwide top grosser for its fourth consecutive weekend. Those who have seen it go back to watch it again to appreciate it. The movie is full of puzzles. If taken seriously, it can give you… bad dreams.

The story revolves around Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a thief who spies for individuals and corporations. He is an expert at probing the minds of people in their dream state to steal their secrets. Cobb is tired of this profession which was the reason he lost his wife and got separated from his family. Cobb wants to be reunited with his two children and his father, (played by Michael Caine), after a life of spying. He gets an irresistible project from Saito (Ken Watanabe), an energy tycoon, to plant an idea in the mind of his competitor’s son Robert Fisher (Cillian Murphy), who gets to inherit the business from his dying father.

Cobb forms a team of experts, whose members include Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page, an architecture student. While they are accomplishing Cobb’s final mission, the thought of his wife’s death keeps coming back to Cobb because he feels responsible for it. The relationship of Cobb and his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) heightens the movie’s drama and made me wonder what I would have done if I were in Cobb’s place.

The mission involves peeling the layers of the subconscious during the dream state. The team members are connected to gadgets that will put them into the journey of a dream with Fisher. They have to take a powerful sedative, but unknown to the other team members, they may not wake up and may just remain in limbo, if the mission becomes unsuccessful. It was something very risky which Cobb had to do in order to get back to his family.

The director (Christopher Nolan) puts the viewers at the edge of their seats, while engrossed with the unfolding of the mission, with fast-paced action and visuals, and reverberating music. As I watched it in an IMAX theater at the SM North, I could feel every pulse and beat of the booming sound effects which added to the intensity of the action scenes.

Inception is a great movie with an all-star cast but hands down, it is DiCaprio’s movie. He definitely outshines his co-actors who all played their roles well. DiCaprio as Cobb was moving in those scenes when he had to choose between staying with his wife in his dream or going back to his two children in real life. Truly, the young boy in Titanic has gone a long way. With such fantastic acting, especially in the scenes where he was desperately pleading with his wife, I will not be surprised if he gets an Oscar nomination. As for Nolan who was able to bring out the best in DiCaprio — he is indeed an actors’ director.

After watching this movie, we will appreciate the value of our dreams. How I hope we can also control our dreams and in the process, make ourselves better. Who knows, in the future, the phrases “let us dream together” and “see you in my dreams” will have entirely different meanings.