Inception (2010)--2nd theater viewing

Nolan is a smart smart smart filmmaker. We watched this one again late one night because we could and this time around I paid attention to a few small details that had been brought to my attention by some review or another. Somewhere someone pointed out that DiCaprio only wears his wedding ring in the dreams and this proved something or another that's not particularly relevant here. What is relevant that upon second viewing when I knew the plot (because unlike others, I didn't think it particularly difficult to grasp), I could pay attention to things like whether DiCaprio had on the ring. What's interesting to me is that not only is the continuity fantastic--you never see the ring on DiCaprio when he's not in a dream--but that Nolan, and thus DiCaprio, carefully play with whether you can see the ring. Yes, you only see the ring in the dreams but in some dreams DiCaprio's hand is purposefully obfuscated. His left hand is under a table or he's only using his right or the ring finger on the left hand isn't visible. So you can't run with the ring theory entirely but the ring is obviously a trope to be paid attention to. Nolan is smart and clever and careful enough to give us an inkling of a thread to pull but he won't allow that thread to unravel the movie or give us any answers. Impressive.