I think Nolan's aggressively keeping open both possibilities - the kids doing what they'd done before (how long before? six weeks? ten years?) is no less stylized than anything else ever happening. So if it's not a tell that one is wrong, it's definitely another indication that either may be right.
Though if you're right about the hard fade, you could defend the movie as saying: we're letting you have the easy answer if you like easy answers, but the harder one is that reality makes large numbers of people extremely unhappy, and all of those people would be much happier if reality could be replaced by a fantasy they were able to believe in. The cut to black is an invitation to wake up from a childishly unreal approach to reality - though you can fail to take it also, and just think, "huh huh, what if it's still all a dream, that's wild man!" without looking back at what might have justified the gesture.
The possibility that she woke and he's just still lost...no, I hadn't considered that at all. Though go that far and you can also question whether she ever existed. This all might be one conventional dream one man is having one one night. As could any movie. Though what kind of day content could produce such a film? Maybe watching eXistenZ seven times in a row? Or alternating it with The Matrix, Identity, Naked Lunch, recent Lynch films, Memento...
The movie can ultimately only have two points: manipulation of (perceived) reality can be terribly dangerous to sanity, manipulation of reality can be a wonderful gift to those sufficiently hurt by the true state of things. #3 keeps that alive most cleanly, but the free fall of not being sure about any of the facts setting it up is probably intended. A further reminder of the dark price of once throwing out the compass.
But again, other people do stuff without him. So unless he dreams in 3rd person, fast-cut coherent 2010 action movies, some portion of the movie would seem to be happening.
(Also, he gives Sato a gun, so as to be awakened by a death-kick. But how does he wake? Ariadne tells the alien kid she's convinced he'll be able to free himself, so maybe if you've been down there before you don't need a kick, you just will yourself awake. And maybe that's the point where he never woke, but just thought he did, and is on Shutter Island at the end. But I don't like that because it takes the deliberate self-inception out of the plot.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-07-22 07:36 pm (UTC)Though if you're right about the hard fade, you could defend the movie as saying: we're letting you have the easy answer if you like easy answers, but the harder one is that reality makes large numbers of people extremely unhappy, and all of those people would be much happier if reality could be replaced by a fantasy they were able to believe in. The cut to black is an invitation to wake up from a childishly unreal approach to reality - though you can fail to take it also, and just think, "huh huh, what if it's still all a dream, that's wild man!" without looking back at what might have justified the gesture.
The possibility that she woke and he's just still lost...no, I hadn't considered that at all. Though go that far and you can also question whether she ever existed. This all might be one conventional dream one man is having one one night. As could any movie. Though what kind of day content could produce such a film? Maybe watching eXistenZ seven times in a row? Or alternating it with The Matrix, Identity, Naked Lunch, recent Lynch films, Memento...
The movie can ultimately only have two points: manipulation of (perceived) reality can be terribly dangerous to sanity, manipulation of reality can be a wonderful gift to those sufficiently hurt by the true state of things. #3 keeps that alive most cleanly, but the free fall of not being sure about any of the facts setting it up is probably intended. A further reminder of the dark price of once throwing out the compass.
But again, other people do stuff without him. So unless he dreams in 3rd person, fast-cut coherent 2010 action movies, some portion of the movie would seem to be happening.
(Also, he gives Sato a gun, so as to be awakened by a death-kick. But how does he wake? Ariadne tells the alien kid she's convinced he'll be able to free himself, so maybe if you've been down there before you don't need a kick, you just will yourself awake. And maybe that's the point where he never woke, but just thought he did, and is on Shutter Island at the end. But I don't like that because it takes the deliberate self-inception out of the plot.)