Inception opening analysis

It is clear from the start that this is a thriller film. It is extremely confusing and enigmatic, just as thrillers should be. The scene opens with a shot of the sea followed by a close up of the first character's face. At first, the water obscures our view of him creating enigma-we wonder who he is and can't tell if he is drowning. The next thing we see is a child screaming. We think this is just because somebody is in the water drowning, but then we see a shot of a gun on the drowning man's back. We do not instantly see the face of the person holding the gun but assume he is an antagonist. When we do see his face, it looks like he is a police officer, it is not unusual for cops to be corrupt in thrillers however. We still don't know if he is good or bad. There is then a long shot of another person, whom the 'police officer' is talking to. We cannot make out who this person is at all. The long shot is used to represent his distance. A large building then comes into view, it is part of the mise en scene and is very enigmatic. It is an establishing shot of the room that we are about to enter. In the room, there is a conversation in a foreign language. This is clearly to add to the confusion. It is something we are not used to. The doll shot slowly reveals to us what is in the room, but we don't see the person who is speaking. This is very enigmatic and is used to makes us wonder what is going on.

The moment the 'prisoner' is brought into the room, the suspense is significantly heightened. We wonder what  he is there for and if he will survive. There are lots of close ups to show the emotion on his face. The same is true with the man asking the questions. There is a full view of his face however we still do not know who he is or what he is doing. It seems to be that he is the antagonist and the other character is the protagonist. The protagonist seems to have a dark and troubled past, as shown by this scene and the fact that his face is partially covered by water at the start. The 'antagonist' has one side of his face lit in a lower key than the other which would suggest that there are two sides to him.

To conclude; this is a very good opening and creates lots of enigma through use of dialogue, camera work and mise en scene. This is of course in addition to a seemingly good narrative.