trying to come up with a pun on Inception

Two movie-related posts in a row, what's up with that?

Sorry, I know this blog is intended to be about writing and writings, but a girl can't help it if other art forms also elicit a strong reaction every now and again.  My husband and I went to see Inception last weekend and the movie has been rattling around my brain for three days now.  

While watching the film, I loved it.  How often does a movie come along that is simultaneously this much fun and this mentally engaging?  I felt the entertainment hemisphere of my brain limber up and do the acrobatics necessary to keep up with Christopher Nolan's matryostka of a movie. Fun. Fun, fun.

My husband and I agreed on this enjoyment and gave it two thumbs up.  Then we spent the subway ride home contemplating separately before we discussed it.  And here's where Inception gets interesting: while we both thought we figured out the plot, we had very different interpretations of what happened.

This, I have to say, is not a flaw in my book.  It's great.  Like modern art and classical music.  How often do movies open themselves up to that kind of interpretation and personal resonance?

My next point of awe: it is an incredibly well structured movie.  As a writer, structure scares the hell out of me.  Yes, I know, it is pretty much the muck in which Christopher Nolan frolics.  But it is also impressive to create this intricate, this layered a movie and have the audience still keep up.

That all said, the disappointments (and here we have spoilers, too):

Ariadne: If you are going to create this much of a mind fuck, you need an exposition fairy.  I get that and appreciate that Nolan did not pretend this character was anything else.  But here is where I am willing to suspend my disbelief of the impossible but not the improbable: Why does this character magically understand the depth of Cobb's psychological problems and their implications before even his closest friends?  All of her other questions and hypotheses make sense to me.  An intelligent person in her situation could make the mental leaps.  But this, no.

The lowest dream: Is this limbo or another level of dream state?  Because if it is limbo, why isn't Cobb as old as the old Asian dude by the time he finds him?  And if it is not limbo, how did the old Asian dude end up in Cobb's dream world?  (Yes, I know that this incongruity is in direct opposition to my praise of Nolan's structure, but what the hell.  I was still impressed.)

I have discussed the movie with friends who disliked Mal and disliked the ambiguity of the ending.  I have to say that I shared neither view.  I loved Mal. (Marion Cotillard is kind of delicious in everything, no?)  I loved the movie's explanation of her thoughts and motives as well as Cobb's interactions with her.  She is so pure in her purpose and yet quite multidimensional for a figment.  And, while I have a strong opinion about what "really" happens in the ending, I like the ambiguity.

So, what do you think?  Stellar structure and thought provoking fun?  Crap dialogue and plot holes the size of falling vans?  In the end, I think that any art that leaves the audience having such heated conversations and contemplation days later has done its job well.