Interstellar

Interstellar (2014)

Producers: Jordan Goldberg, Jake Myers, Kip Thorne, Thomas Tull, et al.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writers: Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan

Rated: PG-13 for some intense perilous action and brief strong language.

Runtime: 169 min

Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi

One of the biggest compliments I've always felt you can pay a film, especially one that is two hours and forty minutes long is that it didn't seem that long. The first three-fourths especially just seemed to fly by, a good sign that you are fully immersed in what is happening before your eyes. Being that invested in the story allows you to forgive some of the missteps along the way, not that there were a lot, just slight stumbles during an otherwise quality film. When relativity and imagining additional dimensions as perceivable planes are part of your plot there are bound to be elements that can't quite be cleared up within the bounds of one film, no matter the length.

All of the acting in Interstellar is good, with Matthew McConaughey (Cooper) and Mackenzie Foy (Murphy) standing out. The interactions between them were my favorite parts of the early portion of the film, believably portraying the relationship between father and daughter and laying a foundation for the more esoteric ideas in the latter half of the movie. Due to relativity and gravitational fields time doesn't proceed for Coop and his crew at the same rate that it does on Earth. This leads to an absolutely heart wrenching scene in which Cooper watches the childhoods and young adulthoods of his children flash by during a series of video messages. This was Nolan's most emotional and sentimental film as far as I'm concerned; occasionally to its detriment (I didn't groan during the love discussion, but it felt a little contrived), but often to great effect.

An unannounced actor pops up in the latter part of the movie, and gives a fine performance as a long marooned astronaut. At first, seeing him pulled me out of the movie, I'm not sure if this is due to his own stardom or the jokes that have been made at his expense over the years, but after the initial surprise he fell into the character, never becoming too distracting.

The conclusion was alluded to several times throughout the movie, and I had guessed at the skeleton of it by that point, but it didn't quite fit for me. As in most films involving these kind of elements there's a rather large paradox that is never reconciled. Some things felt too ethereal for a movie that had been so grounded in science up until that point. Then the last ten minutes seemed to try to tie it all up in a nice package for the audience, giving us a surprisingly Hollywood ending for a Nolan film.

Conclusion: The visuals and acting in Interstellar are amazing. In a race where time is the enemy, even more so than usual, Christopher Nolan gives us an emotionally heavy look at humanity's last chance for survival. The ending is the crux of the argument to determine whether this is one of Nolan's best or an ambitious yet flawed entry into his filmography.

Rating: 8/10