"“It doesn’t matter” is the whole fucking point of the movie.
I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t answer whether or not he is dreaming. But I can say that the information given, plus what I’ve learned by cultural osmosis, leads me to want the film to not be ambiguous. Why? Because it doesn’t seems like dream realities are close enough to the real thing to work. Apparently he can never dream up someone as real as his wife. So dreams have inherent limitations in how real they can be.
The ambiguity works if it’s ambiguous to him, too. But if he gets to figure it out later, from people not being quite real, yet I don’t, I think I would feel it was wrong. If dreams are in some concrete way inferior to reality, then it does matter.
I do wonder if anyone who actually has seen the movie feels this way. Maybe that’s the reluctance they have, and it’s not based on not liking ambiguous endings.
I must admit, I did as a teen remove as much ambiguity from "The Lady and the Tiger. But, again, that’s because the story indicates that the ambiguity was going to be solved. (I see no reason the guy would not know what the Lady would choose, seeing as he also knew her so well he knew she’s know who was behind each door. Either they know each other really well, or there’s a plan involved.)
BigT, see it! I bet you’ll like it.
I agree with that. But the director botched it, as I mentioned in my own recent Inception thread, by not letting his kids grow - they appear to be the exact same size/age as when Cobb last saw them, despite the fact that there are plenty of details in the film that lead the viewer to assume that Cobb’s been on the lam for a while. So, as depicted, it can’t *not *be a dream IMO.
Not that Cobb cares much any more at this point, if he ever did. And as you say, ultimately there’s not much difference.
Ahem
And ahem
But they don’t look the same. There are different sets of actors playing the kids in the dream sequences versus the end (the ones at the end are a couple years older). I don’t think this is proof it’s real (he could be dreaming them as older now), but it’s wrong to say they are exactly the same.
ETA: Martian Bigfoot thinks he ninja’d me, but he might only be dreaming it.
I just found this quote from Chris Nolan; not sure how I missed it before.
[QUOTE=Christopher Nolan]
There can’t be anything in the film that tells you one way or another because then the ambiguity at the end of the film would just be a mistake … It would represent a failure of the film to communicate something. But it’s not a mistake. I put that cut there at the end, imposing an ambiguity from outside the film. That always felt the right ending to me — it always felt like the appropriate ‘kick’ to me….The real point of the scene — and this is what I tell people — is that Cobb isn’t looking at the top. He’s looking at his kids. He’s left it behind. That’s the emotional significance of the thing.
[/QUOTE]
Well, there you go, then!: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WordOfGod
But even if Cobb isn’t looking at the top, WE are. By design. It’s right there in front of us on the screen. So maybe it’s not significant to Cobb but it apparently is to us since we’re being made to watch it. Therefore, trying to decipher what happens to it and what it means seems completely legitimate.
Whatever Nolan’s designs were there, it feels to me like he bungled it.
Do you mean he bungled it because he left it too ambiguous, or because he tried to make it ambiguous but mistakenly gave away the answer?
This.
I’ve gone back and forth endlessly on whether the last scene was supposed to be dream and reality and have finally come to the viewpoint that it’s beside the point. Cobb’s walking away from the top is in fact the whole point of the scene. He has found a place where he is happy, and no longer cares whether it is dream or reality.
Well, except that if he said his own imagining of Mal was inadequate, why would he be satisified with his own imagining of his kids?
Damn.
Well, I really meant that he bungled it because he wants the point to be that Cobb isn’t fixated on the top but leaves us to be fixated on the top (forcibly, by making it the shot for the last 15-20 seconds) thus making everyone’s question “Did it fall?” rather than “Did you see how Cobb walked away?” Him spinning it then walking away and picking up his kids would left the focus on his actions rather than the audience ignoring that to second-guess what the top is up to.
OK, I get what you’re saying. But I think focusing on the top was necessary to emphasize that it was ambiguous. Cobb turning his back on the top is impactful only if the audience isn’t sure whether it’s a dream or not.
Well, the top seemed ready to fall so it wasn’t ambiguous (to me) so it failed (for me) on both accounts. I wasn’t thinking about Cobb any longer nor did I question whether or not it was a dream.
Just my opinion and take-away from it though.