Interstellar Movie Review: Christopher Nolan's Most Ambitious Work A Display of His Best & Worst
Throughout the last decade, Christopher Nolan has built his name as a major blockbuster filmmaker.
His Batman movies have become some of the most popular films of recent memory and have forged a new direction for the way comic book movies are made. But during that same time, the director has also established himself as a master of creating unique concept films that broaden audience imaginations with cracking exposition and scintillating plot twists.
"Interstellar," his latest film, carries the burden of continuing the Nolan legacy, and many have expected this film to be the best of the lot. Headlined by recent Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey alongside an all-star cast, this science fiction film could become the next major picture to follow in the footsteps of Stanley Kubrick's philosophical "2001: A Space Odyssey" and Andrei Tarkovsky's melancholic "Solaris." But does it live up to that promise?
The film is set in the near future when the world -- or more appropriately the U.S. farming belt since the rest of the world is not glimpsed once -- is undergoing a dust bowl and is set to be destroyed by in coming decades. At center of it all is Cooper (McConaughey), a former pilot who now lives on a farm with his father-in-law and two children. His daughter Murph is apparently being visited by some ghost and is causing problems at school. One day Cooper realizes that the "ghost," or Poltergeist as she calls it, is sending a message using binary code. It allows them to obtain coordinates that lead the two to a hidden NASA base. Moments later, Cooper is asked to lead a mission into space to seek out a new galaxy and find a planet safe enough to restart civilization. The mission, which is not the first of its kind, must travel through a wormhole near Saturn.
Convinced that this is the only way to save the world and his children's futures, Cooper agrees, much to the anger of Murph.
But there is a twist. Cooper tells his daughter that he will return someday, but once he is up in space and through the wormhole he realizes that relativity makes time move differently on different planets. Essentially decades will pass on Earth while he is on another planet for less than a few hours.
While Cooper is off trying to save the world, Murph grows up to become an engineer and try to find the solution to gravity, which is apparently part of helping NASA lift into space and arrive at the future home of humanity.
Some might have been a bit curious about the comparisons with earlier masterworks by Kubrick and Tarkovsky, but Nolan actually invites the comparisons himself. He introduces a robot TARS who looks like a monolith from "2001" while also showcasing numerous images of space stations that look similar to Kubrick's visuals. His story structure, in which a man decides to leave a loved one behind to head on a space journey, comes right out of Tarkovsky's book. Moreover Nolan's seeming desires to grapple with the future of man and the implications for humankind in the vastness in space seem to also create the anticipation of philosophical discourse.
While Nolan certainly presents curious ideas in some moments, these aspirations never really come to fruition. The director, well-known for his endless exposition and frenetic cross-cutting, seems to amp everything up to the max with this picture. It seems that realizing this is his most ambitious film to date, Nolan has also decided to push everything to maximum. And much of this works to his detriment.
The filmmaking gets rather jagged throughout with sequences and shots racing by quickly. Nolan has never been one for dynamic wide shots, and it is clear he has no such ambition with this film. Those hoping for a slower pace that reflects the spaciousness of the universe will not be thrilled with the speed of the editing. Moreover the sound design, which is often a major strong point, can get a bit over-the-top when it comes to Hans Zimmer's bombastic score. Zimmer uses an organ throughout that is so heavy-handed as to irritate and even muddle a lot of dialogue.
Speaking of heavy-handed, it is clear that Nolan wants to pull on the viewers' heartstrings and he pushes this agenda to the max, particularly in his third act which seems to turn the film from science fiction into space opera. Anne Hathaway's Amelia gets a cheesy monologue on how love transcends time and space like gravity, a theme that will play a prominent role in the film's denouement. The viewer is aware of the manipulation (and sees the plot twists miles away) and somehow the film, which is clearly intended to be a tear-jerker, actually rivets less than Nolan's other efforts.
Now all the above comments might paint a rather negative picture of what is actually an entertaining film when one overlooks Nolan's attempts to be sentimental and intellectual at the same time. If the viewer can overlook this confusion of aim, then the film actually makes for a solid piece of entertainment.
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema is growing into one of the finest visual stylists around, and his work on "Interstellar" continues to make a tremendous case for him. Some of the imagery, particularly in the vastness of space, is breathtaking to be sure. The spherical wormhole is easily the visual highlight of the film, but there is a sense of wonder in looking at a mountainous tidal wave as well as a black hole from a distance. This film must be seen in 70 mm IMAX to truly feel the visual splendor "Interstellar" has to offer.
Zimmer's score embodies both the best and worst of the film. The negative qualities were already noted, but there are some truly wondrous cues that leave the viewer dumbfounded. During a terrific docking sequence, Zimmer's score is made up of mainly violins gliding beautifully with minimal to no accompaniment. It is a chilling musical passage that floats sublimely, expressing the unpredictability of space.
The sound design can explode with bombast and obscure some dialogue, but it is otherwise breathless and full of creative flourishes. There really is something to be said for Nolan's ability to contrast the noise inside a spaceship with the empty silence of space. These moments are some of the more potent experiences of the film.
The acting is, of course, the most essential aspect of the film. McConaughey continues to prove that he is among the finest actors of the modern day, and his work here is beautiful. He takes the everyman Cooper and imbues him with a depth of emotion. One phenomenal scene features Cooper watching a video transmission from back on earth. It is his only means of communicating with his growing children, and McConaughey's emotional display is as close as this film comes to heart-breaking.
Hathaway gives a solid performance as Amelia, though her character is not particularly developed and serves more as a mouthpiece to many of the scientific ideas.
Jessica Chastain fares far better as the grown-up Murph. There is a confidence and charisma that the actress gives the role, which contrasts beautifully with the more fragile natures of Cooper and Amelia. MacKenzie Foy is a revelation as the young Murph, and her big scene with McConaughey is the arguably the emotional high of the entire film.
Matt Damon makes a cameo as Mann and essentially steals the show for a good 20 minutes while Michael Caine is also solid in his effective but brief role. Casey Affleck unfortunately gets little to do as Cooper's son Tom, leaving a strong desire that he were given more to do to develop the character.
But that is a lot to ask in a film that comes close to being three hours.
"Interstellar" may not be the Nolan film everyone wanted, but it is a solid film nonetheless. In a world where blockbusters are simply recycling other films ad nauseum, Nolan aspires to something new. He aspires, like the characters in the film, to push our limits and allow us to see things from a new perspective. The end result is a mixed bag, but it is certainly far better than most things being offered.