The Spotlight: Inception's Script. Worst Script Ever? Or Genius?

One of the biggest pet peeves that I have in film, literature, or song, is that ending where the reader/viewer discovers that it was all a dream. Really? Thank you very much. I just invested my emotions in something that wasn’t real. It’s all pointless and one of the biggest cop-out devices around. It’s just loathsome.


Now, The Authors Speak rarely discuss film, but “Inception” is a rare case. Every so often a script needs to be reviewed, and that’s what this is. A review – or a criticism – of a script.

“Inception” is a conundrum of a film. On one hand it’s everything that a summer popcorn muncher should be: eye-popping visuals, insane action sequences, and some heavy suspension of disbelief. Christopher Nolan delivers the goods, no bones about it. However, like most summer movies (and unlike some of his previous films), Nolan gives us another element to the summer movie: awful script.

I’m being very hypercritical, I suppose. It’s a very engaging story. The dialogue is solid. The set-up is really intricate and awesome at the core. These are the makings of an outstanding script. And that outstanding script remains outstanding for exactly half the film. Then the payoffs in the final part of the second act and all of the third act are pointless. I’ve not seen that kind of inconsistency in a film.

I’m not going to spoil the film if you’ve not seen it. It’s certainly worth a viewing in all its big screen glory. I’ll basically say that it involves dreams. Well, when you begin a movie with that sort of premise, you’re actually setting it up to have those “cop-out” moments. The film sets up a very “heist” feel to it. This is a good thing. I was invested all the way through the introduction of Cillian Murphy’s character. After about an hour and ten minutes, though, I had a realization: what the hell is going on. All the things I’d invested in were no longer important. Now it was all about the dream within a dream within a dream within a dream within a (possible) dream. The dreamscapes were marvelous to look at. Gorgeous! Stunning! And when you’re in a dreamscape there’s a little danger lurking (the actual possibility of being caught in a persistent vegetative state in reality) there’s really nothing more than a series of anticlimactic events. Not to mention the fact that all of a sudden a masterful story is really not all that important.

Maybe I’m missing something. This is not an indictment of the film. I truly loved it. I did. I just had issues with the writing. But looking back, Nolan’s other films could have suffered a similar fate. “Memento” very easily could have fallen apart had the script not been better. Actually, at it’s core, the story is pretty basic. Though the short-term memory loss makes it shine. “Insomnia” nearly suffered from being bogged down with dialogue. “The Prestige” gets in its own way at points. And the “Dark Knight”…well, that may be Nolan’s best directed script, thus far.

If you’ve seen it, please share your thoughts with me. I’m not the end all be all. I want to hear arguments pro and con for this film’s script. Let me know your thoughts and I’ll post them here.

Speaking of movies, Matt Ruff will join us tomorrow on the Authors Speak.  Wait!  What the heck does Matt Ruff have to do with movies?  Well, if you've read essays (or his books, specifically "Sewer, Gas, and Electric") by Matt, you'll know he has a theroy on "Amusing Black Characters".  We'll get to the bottom of that tomorrow. 

Until then, email us your thoughts on Inception's script and keep reading.