Many friends and colleagues know my poor knowledge of film and how I find it difficult to sacrifice large swathes of time to actually sit down and watch a film. I was however, convinced to make a rare trip to the cinema a few weeks ago to see the highly acclaimed and highly brilliant Inception. Without actually dwelling on the plot, giving a review or ruining the film for those that have not seen it, I would like to talk about a major question that the film poses about its own medium.
The major question at the end of the film relates to a "did it or did it not" ending that is open to interpretation. A person's own interpretation of this ending place the film in wildly different contexts. While the debate rages between "yes" and "no" amongst many people, my own take of the ending was slightly different. The film does not actually pose a definitive answer to the problem and is clearly deliberately ambiguous. With that in mind, I have to believe that drawing a conclusion either way would be incorrect.
A power of film that I have only just realised is that it can tell a story without any kind of conclusion. If we take the film as a self-enclosed world that has no narrative beginning or end (which is backed up by the cyclical nature of the film) then all endings are possible. In effect, "yes" and "no" to the mystery at the close (the end of our foray into the world of the film) are both true at the same time.
This was the first time that a film allowed me to hold two completely contradicting ideas in my mind at the same time.
-The English Student
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