Haven’t watched this for quite a few years and is just as incredible as I remember but it could also definitely be significantly improved or could be altered to a way I would like it more personally. 

The concept is amazing and definitely carries the film for me but there’s no problem in that when it is so thought provoking. Since watching it yesterday I have debated so many different things in my head and you could do this infinitely. The fact that people still debate the ending and the meaning behind different aspects of the film over a decade later on top of it being visually amazing with one of the most loved scores mean the problems with this film can almost be ignored because it’s impactful and achieves what it intends too, and because it is enjoyable to watch. 

You can definitely pick holes in the plot but that doesn’t really detract from the film for me because firstly it’s obviously a very ambitious concept to depict on this scale and more so because it’s only really in hindsight that they are apparent, at least to me anyway - during watching the film things make sense and I’m not sat there questioning how that’s possible because this happened or this was said etc. and like I said, regardless of these inconsistencies it is extremely thought provoking and immersive. 

The thing that does detract more for me is the lack of character development/arcs in any of the characters besides Leonardo Di Caprios character. I would care a lot more about them achieving this goal if I knew about any of their backstories or motivations, the others are important in their roles but I want to know why they’re there because I don’t even know what most of them gain from this in their own lives. Elliot Page’s character is the most likeable to me but I’m not invested in her story like I could be because I do not know anything about her other than the fact she’s a talented architect. Even with Di Caprios character, I don’t find him the most relatable or likeable (not that he has to be but my favourite films nearly always have loveable or at least understandable characters). At the end of the film he turns away from the spinning top, indicating he no longer cares about whether he is in reality or a dream which is a nice message in some senses but it also demonstrates how selfish he is - to me the main motivation to be back with his children should be to actually reunite with his real life children for their sake - the fact that he’s happy and unbothered about whether he’s interacting with his children or simply his own projections of his children shows that, now he has removed the guilt he’s been feeling about his wife, he prioritises his own experience over anything else. This is not necessarily inconsistent with his character throughout the film though - he is definitely selfish, the message would just ring truer for me if he cared about his kids actual experience as much as his own. You could also argue that because he sees his kids’ faces he knows he is not in a dream and that is the confirmation he needs of his reality, so there is that perspective too. Whilst these character issues (the dialogue could be more inspiring at times too) do somewhat cap my rating of the film, it’s still something I’d happily watch again and again.