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Interstellar
| Released |
7 November 2014 |
| Director |
Christopher Nolan |
Starring
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Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Caine, Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, David Gyasi, Mackenzie Foy, Topher Grace, John Lithgow |
Writer(s)
|
Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan |
Producer(s)
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Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan, Lynda Obst |
| Origin |
United States, United Kingdom |
| Running Time |
168 minutes |
| Genre |
Adventure, mystery, sci-fi |
| Rating |
12A |
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To infinity and beyond.
Have you ever sat down to watch a classic sci-fi masterpiece like Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey or Tarkovsky’s Solaris, and, while genuinely appreciating their thematic resonance and artful production design, found yourself getting a little bored?
Well there’s no shame in that, because Christopher Nolan clearly falls into that camp too. Interstellar is proof of that much at least.
A supremely ambitious blockbuster space-romp with near mythological reverence displayed to the notion of human space travel, Interstellar forms a kind of neat bridge between a more cerebral, concept-driven science fiction and a good old Hollywood adventure. The attempt to strike a balance is admirable, but results in a film that is, at times, woefully unbalanced.
A generation or two from now, humanity is on its last legs. The details are left vague. Former pilot and engineer Cooper (Matthew McConaughy) is now a farmer, maintaining endless fields of corn, the last remaining unfailed crop on the planet. Humanity’s only hope is to leave the planet we ruined behind, to cross the interstellar void and find a new home.
Cooper, of course, gets roped into a last ditch mission, joining a misfit bunch of former astronauts for a journey through a mysterious wormhole orbiting Saturn. There is no knowing what could be in the other side, only the knowledge that humanity can’t last much longer on earth.
While there is a constant sense that the film is grappling with the serious physics questions of actual space travel, the film is peppered with far too many logical black holes for any of this to really be taken seriously. But beneath the veneer of hard sci-fi science is something much simpler – a childlike sense of wonder at the idea of space travel. And while this limitation holds the film back in terms of actual intelligence, it also, conversely, results in something very fun to watch.
Interstellar is a wild trip into the ultimate unknown. It has far less to say than it thinks it does, but is nonetheless packed with a very simple wonder. Nolan uses the vastness of a cinema screen (and his trusty IMAX cameras) to project strange new worlds, the vastness of space, the unfathomable depths of the unknown, and it’s hard not to be swept into a certain sense of exhilarating discovery upon watching it for the first time.
The sheer visual thrill ride it provides makes up for its failure to deliver anything comprehensive in terms of story.
It’s not the sci-fi classic in the same league as its influences, but it isn’t really trying to be. It takes just enough cues from something as perplexing and deep as 2001 and adapts them into an adrenaline-fuelled adventure story for the whole family.
Interstellar is a rare kind of film. It’s not brilliant, and in retrospect it may not very be very good, but it’s still more than worth the time it takes to watch.
- Bernard O’Rourke |
