Bias alert! Christopher Nolan can do no wrong in my book. He has created incredible films that have never failed to leave me amazed. Everything from the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, to ‘Inception’, to ‘Memento’. His latest film, ‘Interstellar’ is no different and is probably his most ambitious film to date. Taking obvious inspiration from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, Nolan uses his trademark style of soaring music scores (always heavy in bass for maximum effect) and complex, overlapping, and brain turning plots to take us on a journey trying to capture concepts we are unable to understand in our three dimensional world. You don’t have to be a physicist to enjoy this ride, but the movie doesn’t try to dumb down the science and it stretches our ability to understand things we aren’t meant to understand.
The film starts in the near future focusing on the life of Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a farmer living a farmer’s life, well past his glory years as a pilot for NASA. The world is in its’ final stages of being able to support human life. Year after year, people are able to harvest less and less crops and dust storms have become the norm for weather. Everyone instinctively knows they are only a generation or so away from extinction, but they still try to carry on as best they can. Cooper sits on his porch nightly with his father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow) and remembers the days when humans had purpose. When they dared to explore instead of merely survive. Cooper sees that same spark in his daughter Murphy (MacKenzie Foy/Jessica Chastain), but knows she lives in a world where that is no longer valued.
Murphy amuses her father with stories of poltergeists in her room, that is until Cooper starts to see things he can’t explain. Patterns in the dust and oddly arranged books on the book case in Murphy’s room arises his scientific curiosity and eventually leads him to see patterns. The patterns lead to coordinates which lead him to a secret scientific base in the desert. He discovers a group of scientists lead by Prof Brand (played by Nolan favorite Michael Caine) and his daughter (played by new Nolan favorite Anne Hathaway). Prof Brand confirms that the human race will indeed not likely survive his daughter’s generation and since the discovery of a wormhole (a tear in space) by Saturn, they have been working for decades to find another inhabitable world. For years, they have been sending secret expeditions to the far side of the universe with promising data of inhabitable planets coming back. Unfortunately, not one of the astronauts have returned. Cooper is selected to lead a crew to find salvation for the human race.
The effects in this film are stunning and riveting, yet at it’s core, this film focuses on Cooper’s family and the choices he makes. Nolan’s artistry is that he can make the dynamic of Cooper’s family seem as majestic as a trip through interstellar space. In fact, the two are interconnected as they progress through the wormhole and find a black hole on the other side. On the far side of the universe, near the black hole, time, space, and gravity are no longer constant and Nolan challenges our minds to understand the ramifications of actions in five dimensions, when our minds are wired for three. Again, you don’t have to be a science buff to enjoy this. Sometimes the ride is enough (or as Nolan puts it, you don’t have to know how a motor works to drive a car).
Small Spoiler Alert: Towards the climax of the film, it is obvious Nolan tries to capture the magic of Stanley Kubrick’s “acid trip” finale in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ without all the druggie incoherence. In fact, Nolan seems eager to try to show coherence in the incomprehensible. I enjoyed it immensely, even if my suspension of disbelief faltered. Nolan's thumping soundtrack and overlapping plot lines builds to a crescendo as we see all the pieces start to fall together. There may not be comprehension, but one leaves with a feeling of resolution.
Whatever one thinks of this film, this is one of McConaughey’s most intense and emotional performances (and that’s saying a lot). His ability to portray a father torn from his family and struggling with the choices he made is incredible to watch. Nolan’s story telling abilities mixed with incredible special effects further cements his reputation as one of the best film makers of his generation. Solid performances all around by Nolan’s troupe of favorite actors as well as an uncredited appearance by an A-list actor that turns into more than just a cameo.
As I stated in the beginning: Christopher Nolan and his writer brother Jonathon, can do no wrong in my book. A fantastic, awe-inspiring, and thought provoking film. Science fiction usually doesn’t get too much respect come Oscar time, but McConaughey deserves another one this year for this performance.
I give this film **** stars
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