Film 16 - Inception

Only the second film on this list I've actually seen in the cinema, and one of the best of the sixteen films I've seen this year so far. It's the only film that I've ever seen in the cinema that provoked such an audience reaction; the whole cinema was willing Cobb's totem to stop spinning at the end and there was a collective groan as the film ended on that cliffhanger.

When you take a step back, the totem was a brilliant ending and so much about the film was constructed with such care, the concepts all made sense in their world and the introduction of Ariadne was an inspired move, forcing the whole process to be explained by someone new to it and thus us the audience. Before that point it had been a fairly average and thoroughly confusing film.

After that point the film became a classic caper movie but with an added emotional edge, the whole idea Cobb was doing this final mission to get home to his kids. The insight into his dreams, showing his children but Cobb never seeing their faces, set up for the finale - which almost reduced me to tears - of Cobb walking through immigration at a US airport, walking home and him seeing his kids faces as they turn round from the pose they strike throughout the film, the spinning totem spinning forever and the realisation for me, almost a day later, that he must be in limbo.... I really hope I'm wrong.