The Non-Linear Christopher Nolan

With Christopher Nolan's most ambitious film to date, Inception being released tomorrow, people are salivating with anticipation, and it's to the point where it's disgusting. The reviews, as they currently stand, are most positive, but there are quite a few detractors. It's interesting how some of the most positive reviews came in the first few days. Originally at 100% with about 20 reviews a week ago, the Rotten Tomatoes meter is currently at 85% with 100 reviews. Many are bracing for a possible disappointment, but at least 75 of those reviews give the film a perfect score, or close to it, so I'm not worried. I respect the negative reviews for what they are: another perspective.

Going into Inception, I have a feeling that Nolan will use one of his most effective storytelling tactics, the non-linear storyline, in some way. Many have criticized Nolan's decision to tell stories out of order as confusing, but if you think of the film in a chronological sense, it just doesn't match up to the jumbled version. The most prevalent use of this method was in Memento, which was told in reverse order. A scene would start and end, and then the next scene would start earlier on, and then end as the previous scene began. It worked because of the way the main character saw the world. It was essential to the story, and it made it compelling.

Moving on a few years later to Nolan's first reinvention of the long deemed dead Batman franchise, the first half hour of the film was told mainly through flashbacks to Bruce Wayne's childhood, while he learns the skills to fight injustice with Ducard (Liam Neeson). Ducard's questions happen to be the same as the audience, and it's through those questions that we learn about the new Bruce Wayne. It would seem far too clunky if they showed the origin, and then the training, and then moved on.

Nolan's most recent non-linear film, and in my opinion his best, is in The Prestige, which some may object to as his most confusing and disappointing film to date. I find that the editing for the film is aced, and the way the story jumps through time is most impressive. The line between the different timelines is the diaries of Borden and Angier. As Borden reads Angier's diary, we see Angier's journey to America. As the Angier in the diary reads Borden's diary, we see Borden's account of how he met Angier, and how their feud starts. The storyline moves from there, but never abandons the link to the diaries.

Nolan never used his non-linear storylines in The Dark Knight, which may have been the film's biggest fault. One can hope that he applies that to the third Batman film, but I don't know how it will turn out. Looking at some of the rules Inception seems free to break, I'm not sure if Nolan would want to go back to such a restrictive storyline. It seems forced, and I can't see the film going on without Nolan. I am willing to wait though. I'll wait 10 years for Nolan to nail that last Batman film. If only my life jumped back and forth as Nolan's films.