INTERSTELLAR

Interstellar

Grade: A-

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Mackenzie Foy, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley and Ellen Burstyn, with Bill Irwin as the voice of TARS and Josh Stewart as the voice of CADE

Premise: As Earth’s food supply diminishes alarmingly and people become desperate, the remnants of the NASA program try to take advantage of the latest technology and gravitational anomalies to travel across space to explore new potentially-habitable planets.

Rated PG-13 for intense action and scenes of peril, language, and some intense emotional content

 
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-from the poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas

Well, Christopher Nolan has done it again. The writer/director behind the last decade’s most popular thinking-person’s-action-blockbusters (The Prestige, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception) has, in Interstellar, created another eye-popping, jaw-dropping wonder of a movie that is undeniably flawed but undeniably awesome. While its premise is simple, its epic rollercoaster of a plot demands repeat viewings (I can vouch: I had to see it twice in a 24-hour span to wrap my head around it enough to write this review, and I still have questions). Some will love it, some will hate it, and most everyone will debate it—online, at work, in coffee shops around the world—and will be able to debate it for a long, long time. Which is somehow fitting for a movie that takes a soberingly realistic look at what may lie in humanity’s future.

Anyone who watches the movie will be able to recognize the poem excerpt above, a bit that is recited at least three times during Interstellar. It’s appropriate, as its dynamic wording hints at dramatic grandeur and unmistakable grit, as the movie also does. Written by Christopher and his brother Jonathan (previous Oscar nominees for their original script for Inception), this is a stirring cocktail of solid acting, superb special effects, gut-punch realism, affecting emotion, and brilliant suspense.

Plot

Some time into the future, the “excess of the 20^th century” has caught up with mankind. A bacterial plague called Blight has wiped out much of the world’s food supply and population, and word has come that not only wheat, but okra, too, are no longer existent. This means, for the world’s vast population of farmers, corn is the main crop. Though he owns acres of corn fields and has robotic machines called combines to work those fields for him, one such farmer, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), is ill at ease. A former engineer and hotshot NASA pilot, his promising career was derailed by a random crash, and he has since seen the NASA program, the world’s militaries, and other features of human technology and ambition vanish entirely or become warped into a purely-agricultural mindset. This widower’s dissatisfaction is well-noted by his live-in father-in-law (John Lithgow), dutiful teenage son, Tom (Timothee Chalamet), and spirited preteen daughter, Murphy (Mackenzie Foy). Society is quaint and rural, dust is a life-endangering problem, and any kind of high-mindedness is looked down upon.

Or so it seems. Purely by accident, Cooper one day stumbles across the hidden underground remnants of NASA. According to elderly Professor Brand (Michael Caine), NASA had to go underground because the public wouldn’t approve funding for space exploration when there was difficulty “getting food on the table”. But a few have worked on with the highest technologies available, and they believe they have found something. A wormhole—a sort of time-warp shortcut to another galaxy—has been discovered near Saturn, and early robotic probes and even a brave few human explorers have found potentially habitable worlds in the foreign galaxy beyond. A crew is needed to pilot a more high-tech exploration mission to see if any of the worlds really are ripe for human colonization, while the heads back home try to design the right craft with the right mechanical thrust to send large populations of people to a potential new home. All of NASAs best pilots have already been lost or are believed to be setting up camp on those new worlds; Cooper is the best remaining pilot on earth, and NASA needs him to pilot this mission.

Cooper is reluctant to leave his children, but not only has he always been fascinated with outer space and human ambition, he’s always wanted to do something more. Tom understands, but Murph appears unforgivably wounded by his seeming abandonment, for which he can give no definitive answer as to when he’s coming back. Determined to ultimately return home and make things right, Cooper leaves Earth with trained astronauts Amelia (Anne Hathaway), Doyle (Wes Bentley), and Romilly (David Gyasi), plus high-tech robotic aids TARS (voice of Bill Irwin) and CADE (voice of Josh Stewart). But while time is of the essence with family-minded Cooper, there are few certainties about the mission. The trip to the Saturn wormhole will take two full years—requiring cryo-sleep—and beyond, nothing is known of the other worlds except that the other astronauts landed.

What Works?

Having directed the Dark Knight trilogy and Inception, Christopher Nolan has obviously dealt with significant scale before, which is important, since Interstellar is BIG. Aided by top-notch special effects, Nolan’s film reminds you of Earth’s size relative to other planets, and those planets’ size in relation to their galaxies, and their galaxies’ size in relation to the whole universe. He conveys the utter vastness, silence, isolation, and loneliness of space, but also amazes with depictions of the universe in its unparalleled beauty and splendor (the trip through the wormhole is magnificent, as is a mind-bending trip into a black hole). But this isn’t some artsy-fartsy planetarium experience—after the grounded, convincing set-up on Earth, Interstellar presents a string of epic set-pieces, from an ill-fated landing on one planet, an ill-fated landing on another planet, a ridiculously-risky midair stunt, and the greatest jump scare I’ve seen in a movie in years.

Then again, just as Interstellar is not a Terrence Mallick nature-lovers' movie, it’s not a Michael Bay action film, either. I describe these superb events as "set pieces" because that happens to be a rather apt term for them, but the plot and characters are so engaging that these sequences aren’t Events that are supposed to be Super Epic Cool so people can tweet about them—they are part of a big picture that’s supposed to be awesome and powerful, which it is. Just as Nolan’s previous films dealt with human ambition, loss, drive, and stirring psychological portraits, Interstellar explores the vastness of space but feels very personal. Rarely has mortality seemed so inevitable and painful as it does here, and 2004’s The Butterfly Effect was the last movie that so intimately reminded me we can’t have time back, we can’t change things we’ve done, and we’ll always have some regrets. A late-act twist involving re-living memories is profoundly-devastating in its picture of love, separation, and yearning, and the movie’s depth is felt in the way lines of dialogue that seem almost matter-of-fact convey a world of meaning:

-"It's been twenty-three years..."
-“We buried him with Mom and Jesse."
-"I hope you're at peace."
-“You stand a fifty percent chance of killing yourself!” “…those are the best odds I’ve had in years…”

I don’t foresee any Oscar nominations here, but Interstellar is brought to life by a large, well-cast ensemble of actors. Continuing his recent winning streak, Matthew McConaughey brings the usual wry wit and daredevil charm, though it is punctuated with moments of almost unbearable emotion. Anne Hathaway goes through a similar gauntlet of intense emotions as the high-minded daughter of Michael Caine’s wizened professor; she knows all the theory and facts on paper and could say it all backwards, but is ill-prepared for the rigorous intensity that awaits. Caine is expertly-cast as the warm and wise, yet haunted, genius who hopes to save humanity, and other supporters are cast in parts that are ideal for their natural screen personalities—among them Jessica Chastain with her sharp, poised intelligence and Casey Affleck with his earnest but depressed weariness. And whole scenes are stolen by Bill Irwin—best known as Cindy Lou Who’s bumbling father in the live-action version of The Grinch—as the surprisingly-funny robot TARS (who has been the favorite character of both people with whom I’ve seen Interstellar so far).

What Doesn’t Work?

Interstellar is not an air-tight, question-free zone. Far, far from it. This is why I said it demands multiple viewings, because each viewing will probably answer some questions and raise some more, as it did for me. I will say Interstellar gloriously steers clear of the kind of pitfalls that would sink many similar movies, such as a cheap romantic and/or sexual relationship developing between the McConaughey and Hathaway characters, too much focus on ‘future technology’ like hover cars or cool phones or ray guns, or close encounters. Also, despite the movie’s play with time and space and dimensions, “rules” are established—though many audience members will wish otherwise, a very convenient, happily-satisfying reunion is not made at one pivotal moment late in the running.

But the movie’s not perfect. Without leading to any spoilers, I will say that any movie dealing significantly with time travel, dimension-crossing, and scientific terms like “relativity”, “dimensions”, “anomalies”, “singularity” runs the risk of losing people’s interest or alienating them. In a movie like this, a sudden influx of information is necessary but can also be quite challenging. I also questioned why, at one point, the characters thought it necessary to so quickly leave one planet without exploring further (even though they had a particularly negative experience there almost immediately). I also thought McConaughey’s character seemed to take surprisingly little convincing—for a dedicated single parent—to leave his children for an indefinite amount of time. I knew the movie was anxious to get into gear and this development was critical, but I wasn’t quite convinced.

Finally—and this isn’t really a criticism of the movie, but something I just have to say—I wish the movie could have been ten minutes longer. Yes, this is on top of a 2-hour, 45-minute flick (it’s so engaging the time is well-used). Shoot, I’d even have taken 30 more minutes, the ending is so good.

Content

Interstellar doesn’t have any sex or any blood and guts, but it’s a lengthy, challenging picture that is white-knuckle suspenseful at times. There is a bit of profanity (including PG-13’s celebrated one F-word) and, as mentioned, some scary content. I suppose families could see this movie together—just everyone being able to enjoy/understand some of its mind-bender ideas is another thing altogether.

Bottom Line

Wow. Interstellar will leave you with a lot of questions, but it is a well-acted, brilliantly-made, utterly engaging flick, well worth the nearly-three-hour running time. There’s no silly romance shoehorned in, no easy answer, and an ending that leaves you wishing for more. Best of all, the movie’s so complex (Inception in Space, anyone?) that, in repeat viewings, it will undoubtedly prove a gift that keeps on giving. Highly recommended.

Interstellar (2014)

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Screenplay by Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan
Rated PG-13
Length: 169 minutes