Business & Finance Club - Art & Culture : The lanky fellow wearing the backward UC Irvine Anteaters cap stretches out long legs on a deck chair, a well-enjoyed cigar dying in an ashtray nearby. Not far below, well-heeled tourists enjoy the Beverly Hills Hotel pool, blissfully unaware that one of the biggest stars in the world relaxes just above.

"It's been a cool year. Two damn good movies, I think," Leonardo DiCaprio says, flashing that multimillion-dollar grin. Not that he's resting on his laurels, but a double-barreled blast of mind-bending films by two of the world's leading directors (this spring's "Shutter Island" with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese and the new "Inception" with Christopher Nolan) is not a bad showing for the first half of 2010.

In "Inception," DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a corporate thief whose rarefied specialty is lifting secrets from targets' dreams. He and his team penetrate the mark's subconscious and, using customized surroundings they have imported into the dream while negotiating the victim's defenses, persuade the dreamer to relinquish the prize. However, Dom's work is increasingly marred by persistent subconscious projections of his own that could endanger everyone involved.

"So much of the science fiction of the world is something Chris has been deliberating over for eight years and could only be expressed through him," the star of "Titanic" says. "He and maybe one or two other directors in the world would get the budget to do something this surreal and existential and locked in his head. It's very difficult to get a studio to believe in someone that much. I'm sure you could guess the other directors out there."

He leans in slyly and adds, "Maybe there's one."

Nolan's film not only takes place largely in the slippery world of dreams, but also sometimes in multiple layers of dreams with several ticking clocks running at different speeds. No problem, DiCaprio says.

"Chris has a great track record of presenting not only complex narratives but also highly stylized, intense worlds and making them relatable to an audience," the actor says. "So for me, my trust was complete in working with him in that respect. I didn't ever question, 'How are you going to refer to four different states of a man's subconscious and make it a ticking clock, and when are you going to cut away, and how is this going to make sense?' I trusted he was going to do that. I spent two months with Chris talking about the character. My work with him was saying, 'How do we make this guy relatable to people, how do we make his emotional journey relatable in this world?' "

Wild action scenes

For any actor, Dom would seem to be, yes, a dream role. Not only does he have wild action scenes and the chance to explore big ideas, but also a tragic love story played opposite Oscar winner Marion Cotillard. As his long-lost wife, she haunts his subconscious world.

"That's the thing that intrigued me about the character. He's got an ultimate objective, but what's haunting him in this existential dream world is himself. She's a manifestation of him," DiCaprio says. "These were some of the conversations we had with Marion, which started to get so trippy because (the scenes) worked on three levels. I'd say, 'Marion, you're me.' She'd say, 'I know I'm you, so what would you say here?' 'No, you're a projection of my idea of the real you!' " DiCaprio laughs.

"It's a very interesting acting exercise, especially with somebody as talented and intelligent as Marion - sophisticated. Those were some of my favorite scenes to do."

In referring to 23-year-old co-star Ellen Page - whose character he calls his "unhired therapist" - as a "pretty incredible young lady," he stops and laughs at himself. "I'm 35 now. I can say that."

His goatee, slightly rougher than the one he wears onscreen, helps, but he still looks fresh out of college. Until his past two films, it has been a little hard to see him as the full-on grown-up he is. He acknowledges surface similarities between the "Shutter Island" and "Inception" roles - fathers scarred by family trauma, haunted, obsessed and in a degree of denial that could destroy them.

"If those movies' plots were broken down into one sentence, they would be, 'One man's journey to try to come to terms with past trauma and move on with some kind of cathartic revelation about who he is or his life.' But they couldn't be any more vastly different in their approach," he says, laughing at this broad declaration that manages to be an understatement.

"What I love about these characters is that they're unreliable narrators. I don't know how anyone can see either one of these films and completely believe the second time around that every line I'm saying is exactly what it seems, because it's not. We're hiding repressed emotions, we're hiding suppressed things about who we are, and ultimately the endings have surprising reveals."

That's it for similarities between the two films, which even feel as diametrically opposed as could be. The dense claustrophobia of "Shutter Island" contrasts with the wide-open, break-the-sky-apart epic atmosphere of "Inception." Nolan's film has spectacular action sequences - perhaps most notably a disorienting fight featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Arthur, Dom Cobb's right-hand man) in a hotel that is tumbling end over end - plus paradoxes and surprises designed to keep audiences guessing.

A very brilliant dude

"I saw it in the theater for the first time, and I was gripping the chair: 'Oh my God! My heart is racing. I'm not even sure I get what's going on. I get what Cobb's trying to do, but anything can happen right now,' " DiCaprio says in admiration of his director. "He's referring to four different levels simultaneously. ... The audience identifies with this fuse that is going to go off, and then you jump back into these four states of subconscious. This is what makes Chris Nolan a very brilliant dude. Like in 'Memento' or 'Insomnia,' he's able to take these really complex story structures and make you engage. That's a real talent." {sbox}