Andrew Eaton: The Prompt

IT'S Friday afternoon, and my eyes have become glued to a new poster for Christopher Nolan's latest film, Inception. It shows Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard and other cast members, sharp-suited and striding purposefully up and down the walls of sleek skyscrapers, which are all piled on top of each other at various angles. It's like an Armani fashion campaign designed by MC Escher, and it looks fantastic. I'm giddy.

Inception, released in July, is being cleverly marketed as the year's most mysterious movie – in much the same way as The Matrix was a decade ago, with its enigmatic "what is the Matrix?" slogan. As with The Matrix, much of the story appears to take place in a virtual reality where the normal rules of physics don't apply. In Inception, this means people having fights on the ceiling, or calmly sitting in a caf as a cloud of debris hurtles towards them, or, in the trailer's most tantalising scene, an entire city folding in on itself as if someone is rolling up the landscape like a carpet.

As in Nolan's last film, The Dark Knight, everyone involved appears to be taking this Very Seriously Indeed. Fine by me. "A single idea from the human mind can build cities, an idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules," intones DiCaprio solemnly as the cityscape folds above his head. And I listen intently, even though I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about.

Because I love the idea implicit in that speech. During the same internet browsing session, I read about Mission Impossible 4, Ice Age 4, Pirates Of The Caribbean 4, Transformers 3 and a new Planet Of The Apes movie. In such uninspiring company, Inception feels not so much like the year's most mysterious film, more like the year's only mysterious film. It is a Hollywood blockbuster being sold to us not on the basis that it offers something safe and comfortingly familiar, but on the basis that it has an idea, a new and clever one, and that we will have to trust it to show us what that idea is. It's acting like, gulp, a piece of art.

Deep down, I know what is happening here is not that subversive. The Dark Knight was so popular, so acclaimed, that all the marketing team really need to communicate is "look, a new film from the same guy" and their job is done. Art is not overthrowing commerce. Commerce is just doing its job well. But allow me this giddy moment. I'm enjoying it.

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday, May 9, 2010