Willem Dafoe stars in “Inside” (Photo Credit: Focus Features).

(“Inside” trailer courtesy of Focus Features)

There’s a meme, with numerous different photos, that shows how someone planned something out versus the actual outcome.

No matter what the caper is, people envision coming up when they make certain nefarious plans.

But there is also a saying that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

In the movie “Inside,” Nemo (Willem Dafoe) has the perfect come-up.

With the help of technology and some of his buddies on the outside, Nemo simply must break into the home of a colleague while he is out of town, steal some expensive artwork and collect his money from a potential purchaser.

However, when Nemo gets trapped inside his colleague’s home in “Inside,” escaping with his expensive artwork might become too rich for his criminal blood.

All his life, Nemo has found art fascinating.

While things come and go in life, art is for keeps.

That is why when he finds a keeper in the art world, he is determined to keep it away from its rightful owner to line his pockets with millions of dollars of cash.

In “Inside,” Nemo has a gang of comrades assisting with the heist.

However, the actual theft is Nemo’s claim to fame, hopefully.

While he makes his way into the high rise of the Owner’s (Gene Bervoets) condo, he communicates with comrades on the outside who serve as a lookout and timekeeper for this felonious caper.

In “Inside,” his comrades simply go by numbers and not names.

Possibly, the numbers could signify how less important Nemo’s comrades are in comparison with him.

Or it could possibly symbolize that numbers are all that matter, especially numbers that come after a dollar sign.

The number that is most important to Nemo is $3 million.

That is how much the artwork he is stealing is worth.

And taking it from its owner, should only take a few numbers, as in a few minutes.

That is Nemo’s plan.

Inside for a brief moment, then out with the chance of putting seven figures into his bank out.

Unfortunately, things do not always go as planned.

In “Inside,” Nemo becomes a victim of 21st century technology when the security system locks him inside the Owner’s home.

Luckily for Nemo, the Owner is out of the country.

However, the Owner owns millions of dollars’ worth of artwork, but only pennies worth of food.

If Nemo is to survive long enough to figure out an escape plan or long enough for the authorities to apprehend him and send him to the penitentiary, he must use his ingenuity to stay alive, despite the lack of food and water.

And like all criminal associates, when the grits hit the pan, Nemo’s comrades leave him to figure out his predicament on his own.

Actually, who could blame them?

What good would it do for them to help Nemo escape captivity?

The only thing that would accomplish would be putting multiple fools in prison instead of just Nemo.

So yeah, Nemo gets ghosted and the numbers that had his back in the beginning become the number zero, which might symbolize his chances of making it out of the Owner’s home without getting caught.

But what Nemo does not have in help from his comrades, he makes up for it with his intelligence and survival skills.

In “Inside,” Nemo uses the craziest things and methods to spring himself from captivity.

And for approximately 45 minutes, Dafoe alone is enough to carry the entirety of “Inside.”

But after so long, moviegoers will get a little bored with his escape efforts because “Inside” is the type of movie that moviegoers can step away for a minute and still not miss much.

However, what “Inside” shows is how close in nature humans are to actual animals.

When one is struggling for survival, that person will stoop to the lowest level to survive and hopefully eventually escape their predicament.

No matter how sophisticated or educated one might be in the finer things in life, when survival is not guaranteed there is no guarantee that a person will maintain that air of sophistication.

In “Inside,” Nemo must resort to eating pet food just to survive his entrapment.

Despite Nemo’s primitive existence inside the high rise, it would not be a high rise without some cool amenities.

Nemo’s expensive “prison cell” has a refrigerator that informs him of his calorie intake based on the food and beverages he takes out of it.

However, frustratingly the technology allows Nemo to see the goings and comings of people outside of his “prison cell.”

In “Inside,” Nemo constantly sees a housekeeper outside of the penthouse.

However, like many young people she is oblivious to what is happening outside of her own world due to her use of ear buds while performing her custodial duties.

When she is not performing those janitorial duties, she is getting her flirt on with another employee of the high rise.

Nemo desperately wants the young workers to free him.

But he is in for a real ordeal if he is ever to get their attention.

Unfortunately, the cool technology and potential young lovebirds on the outside cannot make up for some of the dullness in the latter part of “Inside.”

And that is probably not what Dafoe planned.

Nevertheless, a little dullness is what happens for half of the film.

 

REGAL RATINGS

FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT

THREE CROWNS=GOOD

TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE

ONE CROWN=POOR

Todd A. Smith
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