Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2010

If I told you the ending, it wouldn’t make a spot of sense. Writer/director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight) spent ten years crafting this smart, labyrinthine and original mind-messer, and you’ll have to pay attention and use your intellect. A corporate espionage expert (Leonardo DiCaprio) specializing in infiltrating his quarries’ minds to steal secrets is tasked by a Japanese corporate magnate (Ken Watanabe) with doing the opposite: planting the seed of an idea in the subconscious mind of a young billionaire (Cillian Murphy) in such a way that he thinks it’s his own. He assembles a dream team for this reverse-heist that includes Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dileep Rao. A strong Marion Cotillard adds complex femme-fatale villainess to her repertoire. Leo’s tactics involve navigating within dreams—and within dreams within dreams, which might even be within still other dreams. Told you it wouldn’t make any sense. But it does, kind of, by the end, which is a jaw-dropping juggling act of rare and effective intricacy, in which the SFX, by the way, serve the story. It’s the kind of movie you’ve decided to see again even before the credits roll.