Warner Bros
《盗梦空间》剧照
《
盗梦空间》（Inception）被有些人冠以“皇帝新衣”的名号。这部有关梦境的片子、导演克里斯托弗•诺兰（Christopher Nolan）继大热片《黑暗骑士》（The Dark Knight）之后的首部力作，绝对当得起“经得起影评人的考验”这个评价。通常说来，能获此称号的都是大受热捧的系列大片（比如《哈里•波特》[Harry Potter]、《暮光之城》[Twilight]）或者大牌云集星光熠熠、强悍到等闲批评对其毫发无伤的影片。《盗梦空间》这两类影片都算不上，不过它没有遭致挞伐，原因很简单：大概只有航空航天局（NASA）的系统分析师才能完全明了剧情。
当然我们也不妨试着来阐述一下剧情。麻烦重重的多姆•科布（Dom Cobb，莱昂纳多•迪卡普里奥(Leonardo DiCaprio)饰演）为企业客户提供特殊的服务：从其竞争对手的潜意识中盗取机密信息。后来，因为他的妻子玛尔（Mal，玛丽昂•歌迪亚(Marion Cotillard)饰演）遭逢变故，科布无法返回美国。玛尔可能已经死了，也可能还在人世，不管她以何种面目出现在科布的梦境中，都会把事情搞得一团糟。日本实业界巨头齐藤（Saito，渡边谦(Ken Watanabe)饰演）要求科布在其竞争对手罗伯特•费舍尔（Robert Fischer，希里安•墨菲(Cillian Murphy)饰演）脑中植入梦境，这是一笔科布无法拒绝的生意：如果他能够操控费舍尔瓦解他即将辞世的父亲（皮特•波斯尔思韦特(Pete Postlethwaite)饰演）一手创办的商业帝国，就能让全球唯一的能源超级王国胎死腹中，而作为答谢，齐藤可以帮助科布回到美国，回到他日思夜想的孩子们的身边。
该如何实现这个任务呢？这个我们就别管了。真正需要问的是，这个故事是在哪里发生的？为了给自己这些意象派奇思妙想提供尽情挥洒的画布，诺兰让这个故事横跨了六个国家以及六个层次的人类潜意识。问题在于，大部分的时间里我们根本不知道自己身在何处，当然其实我们也并不在乎。
梦与电影的渊源同电影本身的历史一般悠久。电影人掌握了两次曝光技术之后，电影中便有了灵魂离开躯体的情节；潜意识的恐惧也可以变为现实；可怜的流浪汉也可以尽情幻想那些大坏蛋被人痛扁脑袋。梦和电影都可以为我们呈现另外一个维度的现实，都是视觉的奇异之旅，充满了不确定性，有时候还会存在弗洛伊德式的隐喻。不过《盗梦空间》却打破了这两者与现实之间固有的平衡：不同层面的体验相互交叉，似真似梦的场景彼此重叠、界限模糊，诺兰根本就不让我们有机会分辨哪是现实哪是梦境。
在这部影片中，他显然不再是一位传统的叙述型的故事讲述者。这当然没问题──大卫•林奇（David Lynch）以及其他很多关注电影的潜意识暗示性力量的电影艺术家也都是如此。不过《盗梦空间》不是一部实验电影，它需要付出极大的心力去解读，诺兰呈现出来的优美画面显然阐述得还是不够清楚的。他的突破性作品《记忆碎片》（Memento）其情节架构倒是绝对称得上构思独特、引人入胜，情节主线前后交错，就跟打鸭子射击游戏中那些成排的鸭子一般前后乱窜。但是，幽暗阴沉的“盗梦空间”里间或出现的幻像却令人想到目前整个电影行业毫无必要地乞灵于特效的现状，也让我们认为，《黑暗骑士》才是诺兰天赋才华的完美呈现──整部片子就是一个神话。诺兰在蝙蝠侠传奇中可以用最天马行空的方式尽情挥洒他的创意，观众也不会无所适从，因为他们对于人物和情节早已了然于胸。
也许《盗梦空间》的故事晦涩是诺兰刻意为之，以求不受情节羁绊去全力打造非凡的视觉效果。果真如此的话，这部影片可真是白费了那么高价的人工了。平心而论，迪卡普里奥是一个很棒的演员，在屏幕上魅力四射，不过他最近出演的角色都跟《盗梦空间》一样地令人费解。（《盗梦空间》中神秘的妻子、与他天各一方的孩子、支离破碎的生活，都不禁令人联想到他最近出演的另一部片子：《禁闭岛》(Shutter Island)。）不消说，他也跟其他演员一样被剧本束缚住了手脚，难以施展演技。科布的盗梦团队──阿里阿德涅（Ariadne，艾伦•佩姬(Ellen Page)饰演）、埃姆斯（Eames，汤姆•哈迪(Tom Hardy)饰演）、亚瑟（Arthur，约瑟夫•高登-莱维特(Joseph Gordon-Levitt)饰演）──提出的每一个问题似乎都能在官方的“盗梦操作手册”上快速、不出意料地找到答案，就好像这个操作手册全都是仓促之间诌出来的。事实上所有问题的回答确实都是千篇一律：麻醉剂会不会让入梦者无法从梦境中回返现实？团队药剂师（迪利普•劳饰演）的回答永远都是，我已经调整过了。如果有人在梦中被杀同时又是处于麻醉状态，会怎样呢？呃，他进入了迷失域，也就是“未经构建的梦境空间”。这些人说这些话真是眼睛都不眨一下，不过影片后半部阿里阿德涅那句“我们现在要进入的，到底是谁的潜意识？”堪称是今年暑期档最逗乐的一句台词。
JOHN ANDERSON
当然我们也不妨试着来阐述一下剧情。麻烦重重的多姆•科布（Dom Cobb，莱昂纳多•迪卡普里奥(Leonardo DiCaprio)饰演）为企业客户提供特殊的服务：从其竞争对手的潜意识中盗取机密信息。后来，因为他的妻子玛尔（Mal，玛丽昂•歌迪亚(Marion Cotillard)饰演）遭逢变故，科布无法返回美国。玛尔可能已经死了，也可能还在人世，不管她以何种面目出现在科布的梦境中，都会把事情搞得一团糟。日本实业界巨头齐藤（Saito，渡边谦(Ken Watanabe)饰演）要求科布在其竞争对手罗伯特•费舍尔（Robert Fischer，希里安•墨菲(Cillian Murphy)饰演）脑中植入梦境，这是一笔科布无法拒绝的生意：如果他能够操控费舍尔瓦解他即将辞世的父亲（皮特•波斯尔思韦特(Pete Postlethwaite)饰演）一手创办的商业帝国，就能让全球唯一的能源超级王国胎死腹中，而作为答谢，齐藤可以帮助科布回到美国，回到他日思夜想的孩子们的身边。
该如何实现这个任务呢？这个我们就别管了。真正需要问的是，这个故事是在哪里发生的？为了给自己这些意象派奇思妙想提供尽情挥洒的画布，诺兰让这个故事横跨了六个国家以及六个层次的人类潜意识。问题在于，大部分的时间里我们根本不知道自己身在何处，当然其实我们也并不在乎。
梦与电影的渊源同电影本身的历史一般悠久。电影人掌握了两次曝光技术之后，电影中便有了灵魂离开躯体的情节；潜意识的恐惧也可以变为现实；可怜的流浪汉也可以尽情幻想那些大坏蛋被人痛扁脑袋。梦和电影都可以为我们呈现另外一个维度的现实，都是视觉的奇异之旅，充满了不确定性，有时候还会存在弗洛伊德式的隐喻。不过《盗梦空间》却打破了这两者与现实之间固有的平衡：不同层面的体验相互交叉，似真似梦的场景彼此重叠、界限模糊，诺兰根本就不让我们有机会分辨哪是现实哪是梦境。
在这部影片中，他显然不再是一位传统的叙述型的故事讲述者。这当然没问题──大卫•林奇（David Lynch）以及其他很多关注电影的潜意识暗示性力量的电影艺术家也都是如此。不过《盗梦空间》不是一部实验电影，它需要付出极大的心力去解读，诺兰呈现出来的优美画面显然阐述得还是不够清楚的。他的突破性作品《记忆碎片》（Memento）其情节架构倒是绝对称得上构思独特、引人入胜，情节主线前后交错，就跟打鸭子射击游戏中那些成排的鸭子一般前后乱窜。但是，幽暗阴沉的“盗梦空间”里间或出现的幻像却令人想到目前整个电影行业毫无必要地乞灵于特效的现状，也让我们认为，《黑暗骑士》才是诺兰天赋才华的完美呈现──整部片子就是一个神话。诺兰在蝙蝠侠传奇中可以用最天马行空的方式尽情挥洒他的创意，观众也不会无所适从，因为他们对于人物和情节早已了然于胸。
也许《盗梦空间》的故事晦涩是诺兰刻意为之，以求不受情节羁绊去全力打造非凡的视觉效果。果真如此的话，这部影片可真是白费了那么高价的人工了。平心而论，迪卡普里奥是一个很棒的演员，在屏幕上魅力四射，不过他最近出演的角色都跟《盗梦空间》一样地令人费解。（《盗梦空间》中神秘的妻子、与他天各一方的孩子、支离破碎的生活，都不禁令人联想到他最近出演的另一部片子：《禁闭岛》(Shutter Island)。）不消说，他也跟其他演员一样被剧本束缚住了手脚，难以施展演技。科布的盗梦团队──阿里阿德涅（Ariadne，艾伦•佩姬(Ellen Page)饰演）、埃姆斯（Eames，汤姆•哈迪(Tom Hardy)饰演）、亚瑟（Arthur，约瑟夫•高登-莱维特(Joseph Gordon-Levitt)饰演）──提出的每一个问题似乎都能在官方的“盗梦操作手册”上快速、不出意料地找到答案，就好像这个操作手册全都是仓促之间诌出来的。事实上所有问题的回答确实都是千篇一律：麻醉剂会不会让入梦者无法从梦境中回返现实？团队药剂师（迪利普•劳饰演）的回答永远都是，我已经调整过了。如果有人在梦中被杀同时又是处于麻醉状态，会怎样呢？呃，他进入了迷失域，也就是“未经构建的梦境空间”。这些人说这些话真是眼睛都不眨一下，不过影片后半部阿里阿德涅那句“我们现在要进入的，到底是谁的潜意识？”堪称是今年暑期档最逗乐的一句台词。
JOHN ANDERSON
Call it the Emperor's New Bedclothes: 'Inception,' the first feature from director Christopher Nolan since his enormously successful 'The Dark Knight,' is a movie about dreams and, alas, one that may well merit the appellation 'critic proof.' Ordinarily, this term applies to films that advance a popular series ('Harry Potter,' 'Twilight') or which boast stars so enormous they can't be deterred by conventional weapons. 'Inception' isn't either of these things. And yet it may still be impervious to criticism, simply because no one short of a NASA systems analyst will be able to articulate the plot.
But let's try. The deeply troubled Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) provides a unique service for his corporate clients: stealing secrets from the subconscious of their competition. As will become clear, Cobb cannot return to the U.S. because something happened to his wife, the aptly named Mal (Marion Cotillard), who may be dead, or may be alive, but either way travels through Cobb's dreamlife wreaking havoc. When the Japanese industrial magnate Saito (Ken Watanabe) asks Cobb to plant an idea in the mind of his rival, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), it's an offer Cobb can't really refuse: If he can manipulate Fischer into breaking up the company of his soon-to-be-late father (Pete Postlethwaite), it will derail the creation of the world's only energy superpower. And a grateful Saito will get Cobb back home to the U.S., and his longed-for children.
How? Never mind that. The real question is, Where? In an effort to give his imagist impulses the broadest possible canvas, Mr. Nolan has scripted a story that travels across six countries and just as many layers of human consciousness. The problem is, we don't know where we are most of the time. And we profoundly do not care.
Dreams and movies have a kinship as old as cinema itself. As soon as filmmakers learned about double-exposure, souls started leaving bodies; subconscious fears became flesh; the biggest bad guys were bonked on the head, if only in a poor tramp's fantasies. Both dreams and movies provide an alternate reality, a visual adventure, full of unpredictable and sometimes Freudian implications. But 'Inception' reneges on the implicit deal: By convoluting the various planes of experience, by overlapping and obscuring ostensible realities and ostensible dreams, Mr. Nolan deprives us the opportunity of investing emotionally in any of it.
He is not, it seems, a conventional narrative storyteller. That's OK-neither is David Lynch, or a lot of other artists of cinema who are more concerned with the subliminal, suggestive powers of film. But 'Inception' isn't an experimental movie and it requires too much explanation, more than Mr. Nolan can gracefully dole out. His breakthrough feature, 'Memento,' certainly was a novel, intriguing construct, with plotlines moving backwards and forwards like rows of ducks at a mental shooting gallery. But the sometimes hallucinatory images erupting out of the narrative murk of 'Inception' suggest that the entire enterprise was contrived as an alibi for special-effects wizardry-and that what Mr. Nolan had in 'The Dark Knight' was the perfect match for his talents: Namely, a built-in mythology. Mr. Nolan could embellish the Batman legend in the most fantastical and visceral ways and never lose his audience because they already knew very well who was who and what was what.
It may be that Mr. Nolan is purposely making his story obscure so as not to distract from his phenomenal image-making. If so, it's a waste of costly man hours. Mr. DiCaprio, it should be said, is a wonderful actor as well as an engaging screen presence, but his choices of late seem as suspect as 'Inception.' (The mysterious wife, the ephemeral kids, the fractured realities here all recall the recent 'Shutter Island.') He's also as hampered as everyone else in the cast, needless to say, by the script. Each question asked by Cobb's dream team-Ariadne (Ellen Page), Eames (Tom Hardy), Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)-is answered a la the official 'Inception' owner's manual: quickly, predictably, and as if it were all being made up on the fly. There is indeed an answer for everything: The sedative that doesn't allow a dreamer to return from the dream? I've adjusted it, says the team pharmacologist (Dileep Rao). What happens if someone is killed in dream but is sedated at the same time? Uh, he goes to Limbo, or 'unconstructed dream space.' They don't wink at each, quite, although when Ariadne asks, late in the game, 'Whose subconscious are we going into, exactly?' it may be the biggest laugh line of the summer movie season.
JOHN ANDERSON
But let's try. The deeply troubled Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) provides a unique service for his corporate clients: stealing secrets from the subconscious of their competition. As will become clear, Cobb cannot return to the U.S. because something happened to his wife, the aptly named Mal (Marion Cotillard), who may be dead, or may be alive, but either way travels through Cobb's dreamlife wreaking havoc. When the Japanese industrial magnate Saito (Ken Watanabe) asks Cobb to plant an idea in the mind of his rival, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), it's an offer Cobb can't really refuse: If he can manipulate Fischer into breaking up the company of his soon-to-be-late father (Pete Postlethwaite), it will derail the creation of the world's only energy superpower. And a grateful Saito will get Cobb back home to the U.S., and his longed-for children.
How? Never mind that. The real question is, Where? In an effort to give his imagist impulses the broadest possible canvas, Mr. Nolan has scripted a story that travels across six countries and just as many layers of human consciousness. The problem is, we don't know where we are most of the time. And we profoundly do not care.
Dreams and movies have a kinship as old as cinema itself. As soon as filmmakers learned about double-exposure, souls started leaving bodies; subconscious fears became flesh; the biggest bad guys were bonked on the head, if only in a poor tramp's fantasies. Both dreams and movies provide an alternate reality, a visual adventure, full of unpredictable and sometimes Freudian implications. But 'Inception' reneges on the implicit deal: By convoluting the various planes of experience, by overlapping and obscuring ostensible realities and ostensible dreams, Mr. Nolan deprives us the opportunity of investing emotionally in any of it.
He is not, it seems, a conventional narrative storyteller. That's OK-neither is David Lynch, or a lot of other artists of cinema who are more concerned with the subliminal, suggestive powers of film. But 'Inception' isn't an experimental movie and it requires too much explanation, more than Mr. Nolan can gracefully dole out. His breakthrough feature, 'Memento,' certainly was a novel, intriguing construct, with plotlines moving backwards and forwards like rows of ducks at a mental shooting gallery. But the sometimes hallucinatory images erupting out of the narrative murk of 'Inception' suggest that the entire enterprise was contrived as an alibi for special-effects wizardry-and that what Mr. Nolan had in 'The Dark Knight' was the perfect match for his talents: Namely, a built-in mythology. Mr. Nolan could embellish the Batman legend in the most fantastical and visceral ways and never lose his audience because they already knew very well who was who and what was what.
It may be that Mr. Nolan is purposely making his story obscure so as not to distract from his phenomenal image-making. If so, it's a waste of costly man hours. Mr. DiCaprio, it should be said, is a wonderful actor as well as an engaging screen presence, but his choices of late seem as suspect as 'Inception.' (The mysterious wife, the ephemeral kids, the fractured realities here all recall the recent 'Shutter Island.') He's also as hampered as everyone else in the cast, needless to say, by the script. Each question asked by Cobb's dream team-Ariadne (Ellen Page), Eames (Tom Hardy), Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)-is answered a la the official 'Inception' owner's manual: quickly, predictably, and as if it were all being made up on the fly. There is indeed an answer for everything: The sedative that doesn't allow a dreamer to return from the dream? I've adjusted it, says the team pharmacologist (Dileep Rao). What happens if someone is killed in dream but is sedated at the same time? Uh, he goes to Limbo, or 'unconstructed dream space.' They don't wink at each, quite, although when Ariadne asks, late in the game, 'Whose subconscious are we going into, exactly?' it may be the biggest laugh line of the summer movie season.
JOHN ANDERSON
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