Mellotron Sounds

Over there at the WB’s marketing machine they’ve been plugging Christopher Nolan’s new movie Inception for months now without so much as giving away its characters’ names. A no-context screenshot here, a release date there, the only solid detail a tiny and vague, but also naggingly intriguing, one-line description labeling it “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” It’s been a very hush-hush kind of hype, like the less we know, the more we’d be compelled to buy a ticket come release day. And it even seemed to be working. If you’re an RSS guy like me you’d see articles about it posted on film blogs all the time, postulating on what to expect or on the roles each actor might be playing, turning Inception into the Event WB wants it to be just by playing along in the faux-mystique of its anti-ad campaign.

In short, I wasn’t buying it.

But finally a one-minute teaser for Nolan’s movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page (Juno), Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins), Marion Cotillard (Public Enemies), Michael Caine and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer), was premiered before certain showings of Inglorious Basterds last weekend. I didn’t see it there, and the teaser’s still pretty sketchy on dialogue and plot, but it’s something. And now since I don’t feel like I’m being completely manipulated, I’m a little more open and can say, hey, you know what? It looks kinda awesome.

Although no official plot synopsis has been released, a leaked rumor describes the story as follows:

“Inception is about entering peoples’ minds/dreams. A technology to do so has been developed and is done through an injection. DiCaprio and his team work to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve/plant information.“

If you’ve seen Tarsem Singh’s The Cell, that synopsis might sound a bit too familiar, but it’s just an outline. I’m willing to see how Nolan takes on the idea because, really, this is his bread and butter. He’s a guy fascinated by psychology, you see it in every one of his movies. And this, despite its $200+ million dollar budget, feels like a return to his early, more psych-emphasized work (The Following, Memento). I can’t say I’ve loved every one of his movies–Insomnia and The Prestige didn’t really do it for me–but the guy definitely knows what he’s doing, and it should be cool to see him drop the superhero angle for a while and return to something a little more risky and mind bend-y, especially since he’ll probably have all the freedom in the world given the success of the Batman films.

I’m sure the Inception plug parade will keep on chugging, so expect posters and longer trailers soon enough. Until then, Inception is scheduled for a summer 2010 release.

Inception @ Yahoo! Video