In Contention

Tag: Ken Watanabe

  • On the performances of ‘Inception’

    As a number of people have pointed by asking, my review of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” doesn’t offer much perspective on the performances in the film.  The reason is probably a combination of a few things.

    For starters, I wanted to be as careful as possible to write a spoiler-free review that could be enjoyed by those who haven’t seen the film, and whenever I would find myself considering this or that performance, I felt detailed commentary on plot seeping in.  So I pulled back.  But more importantly, and this is no swipe at the talent on screen, the real star of the film is Nolan and his imagination.

    That sounds like a cop out, but it’s not.  I really and truly didn’t get a whole lot out of the performances.  My favorite is perhaps the least emotional turn of the piece, a steely, confident, at times physically demanding piece of work from an actor I admit rarely does it for me: Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  He lays claim to the character you’d probably trust sooner than the rest if you found yourself in these mind-bending circumstances and does it without histrionic swagger.  I dug that.

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  • REVIEW: “Inception” (***1/2)

    In reviewing 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” I wrote that director Christopher Nolan “has made a brief career of exploring characters built upon their somber, in some instances twisted pasts, however distant or immediate.” The theme continues with “Inception,” a film like nothing you have ever seen before that plays out like a two-hour therapy session, wrapped in the accoutrement of a heist film and bathed in the panache of an entirely immersive cinematic experience.

    The hero is Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a man trying to find his way home, to paraphrase the filmmaker. But is home just a dream, some fantasy trapped in the “what if” corridors of his mind? Or is it possible that maybe through one final job of contrived gobbledygook he might find his way to the life he was forced to flee years before?

    Cobb’s black market profession is “extraction,” a type of mind theft dependent on dream manifestation technology developed by military intelligence for training purposes. If you want someone’s secrets, Cobb’s your man. For a price, he and his crew will go into the individual’s subconscious and bring it to you on a silver platter. But it’s a dangerous job, given the complexities of the process, not to mention the complexities of dealing with the kind of people who’d pay for such a thing.

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  • The Great Performances: 2003

    Sean Penn in Mystic RiverThere is little doubt in my mind I am going to take some heat this week, so let’s kick it off right away with my belief that Sean Penn deserved his Best Actor Oscar for “Mystic River,” a performance of overwhelming ferocity and staggering emotional power.

    Yes, I too loved Bill Murray in “Lost in Translation,” and would have loved to have seen him win, but he didn’t, and frankly he lost to a stronger performance (in my opinion). I know it is a cliche to say the nomination is the reward, but I would hope that Murray would be happy with that.

    But there were so many great male performances in 2003!

    Robert Duvall was superb in “Open Range” as the wily old rancher who ends up in a gunfight for his life with his friend, played by the also fantastic Kevin Costner, by his side. Tom Cruise gave a great performance in “The Last Samurai” for director Edward Zwick, while Russell Crowe was again brilliant in “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” adding to his string of stunning performances.

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  • Nolan continues casting the hell out of ‘Inception’

    Add Ken Watanabe and Tom Hardy to the ever-expanding, impressive slate of actors signed up for Christopher Nolan’s still-shrouded-in-mystery “Inception.”  Watanabe, of course, will be re-teaming with Nolan after starring in 2005’s “Batman Begins,” while Hardy was making waves earlier this year in the Sundance hit “Bronson” (you might recall the amusing story Michael Shannon told about that film back at the Santa Barbara Film Festival).

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Watanabe will play the film’s villain, a man who is blackmailing DiCaprio. Hardy is a member of DiCaprio’s team.”  Can’t…friggin…wait.