( CNN ) -- `` I hate my dreams . They 're so ... infantile . '' Heaven knows what artist Laurie Anderson would make of Christopher Nolan 's first film since `` The Dark Knight , '' but if audiences do n't go for it , we 're more likely to hear a different complaint : It 's just too darned complex . A spectacular fantasy thriller based on Nolan 's own original screenplay , `` Inception '' is the smartest CGI head-trip since `` The Matrix . '' The premise is so out-there , it requires not just a leap of faith but also too much screen time to explain , so do yourself a favor and pay attention . Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb , an `` excavator , '' who digs around in people 's subconscious while they 're catching some zzzzs . This act of infiltration is `` not strictly legal '' ; the motive is not therapeutic but espionage and theft . It 's also not a solo operation . To do the job properly requires an `` architect , '' basically someone to design an appropriate dreamscape , something vivid and detailed enough to keep the dreamer 's defenses down . Depending on the complexity of the project , it might also require a `` burglar , '' a `` chemist '' and preferably someone on the outside to administer a well-timed wake up call . Cobb 's partners include Arthur ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) ; a newbie , Ariadne ( Ellen Page ) ; Yusuf ( Dileep Rao ) ; and Eames ( Tom Hardy ) . Their client , Saito ( Ken Watanabe ) , wants more than access to a rival industrialist 's grey matter ; he requires Cobb to plant an idea in there that will dismantle an entire conglomerate . As if that were n't hard enough , Cobb is also plagued with keeping his own demons at bay , in the form of an angry dead wife ( Marion Cotillard ) . DiCaprio evidently has n't got `` Shutter Island '' out of his system yet . A kind of meta-heist movie , `` Inception '' evokes Philip K. Dick 's cerebral sci-fi , the exploration of alternate states of consciousness , memory and fantasy . But these are also Nolan 's themes , familiar from the amnesiac noir of `` Memento '' and the many , varied mind-games practiced by the warring magicians in `` The Prestige '' as well as the psychological warfare between Batman and his adversaries ( fans of that series will recognize several familiar faces popping up here ) . `` An idea is like a virus , '' says Cobb , and that idea too might have been born in Gotham City or in the rabid enthusiasm that greeted `` The Dark Knight . '' Like `` Memento '' and `` The Prestige , '' `` Inception '' is constructed as a box of tricks . Ariadne ( who helped Theseus slay the minotaur in Greek mythology ) devises labyrinths that are also escape hatches , and that metaphor of the maze runs through `` Inception , '' which is itself a puzzle to be navigated by filmmaker and audience alike . In the course of probing his subject 's subconscious , Cobb escorts him into a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream . If it 's a little disappointing that each level plays out as a straight-up action thriller ( this guy really should get out more ) , the rules of this game are delightfully devious . iReport : Share your review of `` Inception '' He has a tendency to over-complicate , but nobody bends time more ingeniously than Nolan . Three minutes in one dream might correspond to an hour in the next , and both transpire in a matter of seconds up in the real world . Gloriously , real world physics are refracted in the dream zones -- gravity just drops out like a faulty signal -- and if the dreamer starts to stir , the universe crumbles . ( The Big One : the ultimate Angeleno nightmare . ) It certainly has n't escaped Nolan 's attention that this dream life functions as a metaphor for the movies . Ariadne is a production designer , Cobb an actor-director . Extras in the dream -- ordinary passers-by -- are known as `` projections , '' and they become hostile if they suspect that someone is messing with their reality . `` Inception '' only dabbles in the art of perception . For all its layering , the movie 's depth remains on the surface . But with its grand , clanging Hans Zimmer score , its immense , dazzling effects and audacious storytelling , it 's the summer 's best bet to bust the blocks .
`` Inception '' is a spectacular fantasy thriller based on director Christopher Nolan 's screenplay . Leonardo DiCaprio digs around in people 's subconscious while they dream . `` Inception '' is the summer 's best bet to bust the blocks .