Interstellar/Paramount, Warner Bros./Rated PG-13/169 min./Dir. by Christopher Nolan
Science fiction has long been a breeding ground for BIG IDEAS. With a background canvas as vast as the universe itself, it is natural to be drawn to exploring concepts that span and unite the worlds of science, religion, psychology, and mathematics. However, for me, this style of sci-fi has always piqued and provoked. I love movies that ask questions that stimulate deep thought. I always have. However, I also love movies that acknowledge that humanity is, at it's core, a holistic species, longing to not merely think about ideas, but to feel a deeper connection with them. This is why I find some of the grandest sci-fi films, for example 2001: A Space Odyssey, easier to admire than to love.
Much like Robert Zemeckis' Contact, the newly-released Interstellar tries to be both a high thinking and a highly emotional film. I know some reviewers who thought it failed at the latter. I am not one of them. Interstellar is a mammoth motion picture that stays with the viewer long after the credits roll. Much like Nolan's previous films, especially Inception, the plot is twisty, making it sort of a scientific mystery story that spans galaxies and time. It is a masterclass in audacious film making. It's a stunner.
In an undisclosed time in the future, mankind is on the brink of extinction. Occupations that were once lauded (engineering, astrophysics, computer programming) are obsolete as the world is merely scraping to find food and protect themselves from toxic levels of dirt in the air. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), used to be a pilot for NASA, however he is now a widowed corn farmer trying to raise two head-strong children, a son, Tom, who enjoys the simple life of farming, and a daughter named Murphy, who follows in her father's mold, wanting to understand more of the universe beyond the atmosphere. Her big ideas have started getting her in trouble at school (she starts a fight for saying that the Apollo moon landing was NOT faked, like the new history books say they were) and she is convinced there's a "ghost" in her room. Cooper worries for her, but can't help but encourage her to be an independent thinker, even if it jeopardizes her place in the rational world, much to the chagrin of his father-in-law (John Lithgow).
A series of seemingly random events lead Cooper to the secret base that contains the remnants of NASA, where scientists, including Coops former mentor Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and the Professor's daughter (Anne Hathaway) are working to find a way to save the human race. A wormhole near Saturn had been thought to be the answer, so a team of scientists had been sent through to find inhabitable worlds. Unfortunately, only three of the ten scientists seem to have survived and have been sending messages through the wormhole indicating the three different worlds they found are hospitable to human life. Now a new team needs to go through, find and rescue the scientists, and employ one of two plans to ensure the continuation of the species. Brand wants Cooper to lead the team, but the distance and the problems associated with relativity mean that it could be a very long time before he sees his children again, a prospect that does not set well with Murphy.
While the movie delves into a lot of scientific concepts, much of it far beyond my college physics course so for all I know it could be utter poppycock, the two central concepts are gravity and love, and one of the greatest hat-tricks the movie pulls off is marrying a scientific law with an emotion in such a powerful way.
Some have criticized the film's emotional elements, but those elements are at the core of the film's central conceit, that love itself is a quantifiable scientific fact. That in studying this most powerful of emotions, it's reasonable to believe there are natural laws that could be applied to love and that it could be a pulling force just as powerful as gravity. It is an inspiring and beautiful theory and one that elevates the film rather than detracting from it. In fact, this one aspect of the movie sets it apart from Nolan's other efforts, which have been accused of being so mired in ideas that the emotional characterizations of the films feel like an after-thought. With Interstellar, he makes emotion the centerpiece and the movie is all the better for it.
All of this techno-jargon and emotional grandstanding could have been intolerable with a lesser cast, but every performance is spot on. At the center of it all is McConaghey, giving a weighty authenticity to every moment. Of course, he's done this sort of thing before in the previously mentioned masterpiece Contact, but unlike his side character in that film, this movie rests on his performance, an it's Oscar-worthy through and through. Plus, he's surrounded with actors who all turn in some of their best performances, one of the most notable being Mackenzie Fox, previously best known for being Bella and Edward's non-creepy version of their daughter in the last Twilight movie. However, here there is such a great emotional and intellectual heft to her work. It is truly one of the great child performances of my lifetime.
Visually, Interstellar is a must-see, especially on the big screen. I didn't see it in an IMAX theater, but even on a regular old screen, it was spectacular. For some time, CGI has made it more and more difficult for films to deliver things we've never seen before, but man does this movie deliver. There are images and sequences that as nothing short of astonishing.
In addition, Interstellar represents one of the best efforts in composer Hans Zimmer's formidable career. Subtle when it needs to be and downright Strauss-ian in its bigger moments, it's nothing short of fantastic.
With all that having been said, Interstellar isn't perfect. At 169 minutes, it's at least 20 minutes too long, a problem not unfamiliar to Nolan's oeuvre, however in this case there are many elements that could have been excised. There is a character that arrives later in the film that feels unnecessary, all the more so because it's played by an A-list celebrity who has been intentionally left out of the film's publicity. His arrival is a bit distracting and his character is the only one to come off as shallowly written.
These are minor complaints though. Interstellar is an amazing film and one of the best of the year. If you're in the mood for a movie that's a feast for the eyes, mind, and heart, it's a very easy recommendation.
Grade: A
