I know you’re dying to read another blog post about Inception.
There’s been some backlash on the film, and you’ve probably run across two or three movie blog posts like this:
Five Reasons Why You Should Hate Inception
- Because everybody likes it
- Because Christopher Nolan has been cool for too long.
- Because it’s complicated
- Because it has Leonardo DiCaprio.
- Because it’s not as good as The Dark Knight. It’s good-good, not great-good, and that’s not good enough.
Hogwash. You know you liked it. It had jetskis and machine guns.
Anyway, this article’s not about Inception. Let’s talk about Salt for a minute.
Salt was an unfortunate movie. It was directed by Philip Noyce, who showed a lot of craftsmanship. It featured Angelina Jolie in a committed, well-modulated performance.
But the concept of the film—Russian sleeper agents pitted to topple the United States—was antiquated at best.
How antiquated? Well… the below film is about sleeper agents poised to topple the United States. It is forty-seven years old. It is old enough to be your father. It is so old that it stars Frank Sinatra.
The Manchurian Candidate is a good movie. Salt is, unfortunately, not.
But this article’s not about Salt. Let’s talk about Shutter Island for a sec.
Shutter Island is a really cool movie. It features trippy dream sequences, dynamite performances all around, a fantastic atmosphere thanks to Mr. Martin Scorsese, and a dream cast. It bears some similarity to an old, hardly seen film called The Ninth Configuration, which is a really good movie if you can find it. Maybe the ending of Shutter Island is a bit of a downer, but it had some pathos, and I like its ambiguity… I won’t spoil anything… I just like its ambiguity….
But this article’s not about Shutter Island.
You see, Inception, Salt, and Shutter Island have one thing in common: they are Mousetrap Movies. They are films where the mechanics of the plot override character, and you find that very few characters in the film actually make decisions. If you listen to the dialogue, you’ll find that the characters are talking about plot points, not feelings or opinions. They are simply automatons talking their way out of The Mousetrap.
Here’s some dialogue lifted from Inception (thanks to the imdb):
Cobb: You create the world of the dream, you bring the subject into that dream, and they fill it with their subconscious.
Ariadne: How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that its reality?
Cobb: Well dreams, they feel real while we’re in them, right? It’s only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what’s going on.
Ariadne: I guess, yeah.
Cobb: So how did we end up here?
Ariadne: Well we just came from the a…
Cobb: Think about it Ariadne, how did you get here? Where are you right now?
Ariadne: We’re dreaming?
Cobb: You’re actually in the middle of the workshop right now, sleeping. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming. Stay calm.
From Salt:
Evelyn Salt: What is your name?
Vassily Orlov: My name is Vassily Orlov. Today, a Russian agent will travel to New York city to kill the President. This agent is KA-12.
Evelyn Salt: The KA program is a myth.
Vassily Orlov: Don’t you want to know the name?
Evelyn Salt: You’re good. You can tell the rest of your story to one of my colleagues.
Vassily Orlov: Salt.
Evelyn Salt: Yes?
Vassily Orlov: The name of the agent is Evelyn Salt.
Evelyn Salt: My name is Evelyn Salt.
Vassily Orlov: Then you are a Russian spy.
From Shutter Island:
Dr. John Cawley: [Examines Rachel's note] This is definitley Rachel’s handwriting… I’ve no idea what the law of four is though.
Teddy Daniels: Its not a psychiatric term?
Dr. John Cawley: No, I’m afraid not.
Chuck Aule: [Reads note] Who is 67… ____ed if I know.
Dr. John Cawley: I have to say that’s quite close to my clinical conclusion.
This article is about Mousetrap films, why we love them, the ones that do ‘em right and why, and the ones that do ‘em wrong and why. The rules of The Mousetrap vary widely, are executed with varying levels of success, and in my opinion distract the viewer from the potential great pleasures of movie watching. But we’ll get to that.
This is the first part of a five part series. The other parts will come along when I feel like it.
But before we should move on,here’s a ton of trailers for every Mousetrap Movie I could think of. Add more if you want.
