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Written by Gregg Shapiro, Contributing writer
Jul 28, 2010
“Salt” – Photo: Courtesy
“Inception”
(Warner Brothers)
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan (“Memento,” “The Dark Knight”), “Inception” is about the business of dreams – dreams and the money that can be made by influencing the other people’s dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a sought-after dream extractor, is dealing with a living nightmare. He’s under suspicion in the death of his fellow dream-weaving wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) and unable to gain access to his surviving children.
Cutthroat businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) makes Cobb a business proposition that will clear Cobb’s name, if it succeeds. It sounds like a dream come true. But the job doesn’t involve dream extraction. It’s a case of inception, implanting an idea into someone’s dreams. It’s a difficult and dangerous process.
Cobb accepts the challenge and assembles his dream team, if you will. Right-hand man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), forger Eames (Tom Hardy) and architect Ariadne (Ellen Page). Then he sets about making contact with his subject, Robert (Cillian Murphy), the reluctant heir to a major corporation.
Here the work begins, not only for Cobb’s team, but also the audience. Fight sequences that go on far too long, threaten to bog things down. And there’s a lot to digest here, and one’s capacity to suspend disbelief is challenged. But it’s also rewarded with spectacular visual effects that stay with you long after the movie ends.
“Inception” is a dream-come-true for fans of action/fantasy films for taking the genre to a whole new level.
“Salt”
(Columbia)
As if to remind us that Russia and its citizens remain a threat to the well-being of the planet (see also: “The Girl Who Played With Fire”), obvious sequel-setup “Salt” sets teeth chattering with its Cold War revival mentality.
After spending two years in captivity in North Korea, CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is back at work in Washington, D.C. She’s living in the U Street corridor with German national husband Mike (August Diehl) and dog Burt. She gets on well with co-worker Ted (Liev Schreiber). Everything seems to be fine.
But the arrival of Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), a mysterious former high-ranking KGB agent throws Evelyn’s world into a tailspin. Is she really, as he says, Chenkov, a Soviet-trained spy and killing machine whose unfulfilled mission includes the assassination of the Russian president, the devastation of Muslim cultural centers and total Russian world domination?
After countless cunning stunts, mounting body count, dozens of daring escapes, buckets of betrayals and action sequence after action sequence, we realize that, like Evelyn, we are being set up. Breathtaking and bombastic, “Salt” seasons the audience, leaving us hanging, waiting for Evelyn’s inevitable return.
