Inception

The Plot: Leo is a new kind of thief - one who steals information from dreams. Taking subjects into a dream state and entering their mind, he can trick them into revealing all sorts of trade secrets. That's called "extraction". But then he's confronted with a new challenge, much more difficult than extraction - inception. To plant a thought such that the victim thinks that he or she has thought it, accepts it and then changes an entire life.

In Summary: Special effects that are cool, many in the same way The Matrix was cool, but a tool to the plot. Leo is good, as he usually is, and the supporting cast fill their roles well too.

The Casablanca Connection: Rick and Leo both can't return to the US because of a shady deed in the past. You never see Rick commit a crime in Casablanca - his opaque past is assumed to conceal malice, but it never needs to be detailed, and perhaps is never much of anything other than a few notes in a Gestapo notebook. Yet he manages more gravitas than does Leo's character, whose past and reasons for not being able to return to the US must be detailed and become central to the plot. Would that Rick could have found someone to make the phone call - he may even have gone back.

The Rating: 4 out of 5