Earth is on the way to being inhabitable and in order to save the human race, a team is set to travel through a newly discovered wormhole in outer space in search of new planet to call home.
That’s the basics of director Christopher Nolan’s latest, Interstellar, a film he once again penned with his brother, Jonathan. The team behind The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Brothers Nolan like to challenge the depth and breadth of the audiences imagination and they do it again here. Just as Inception asked you to think outside the box when it came to dreams and reality, Interstellar forces the audience to examine their understanding of time, space and how everything is connected.
It’s an engrossing film, not just because of the nearly three-hour run time. Good movies have a way of sucking you in and keeping you captivated, even through the requisite slower sections, and Interstellar does just that – drawing you in with the premise of Earth’s demise and holding your attention throughout the journey.
In addition to being entertaining, there are parts of Interstellar that are stunning. Some of the outer space visuals that Nolan creates are magestic and do a good job of conveying just how small we are in the grand scheme of thing; they capture the vast distance this team is traveling without being unbelievable.
From a story perspective, Interstellar works. There are a lot of elements that just need to be experienced in the theatre during the flow of the film, but on the whole, the Nolans have crafted an intergalactic disaster flick that connects all the dots.
Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway deliver solid performances as the Cooper and Brand, the two lead explorers rocketed into space in hopes of saving Earth. For both, Interstellar is a continuation of the strong run each has been enjoying over recent years and though their roles don’t afford them opportunities to match their respective Oscar-winning performances, they do a great job from start to finish.
So too does Jessica Chastain, who plays McConaughey’s daughter, Murph, who attacks the “We can’t keep living here” problem from the ground.
There is always a danger with grandiose projects like Interstellar that people have been waiting all year to see – that expectations get too high and there is no possible way to deliver – but this one hits all the marks. It’s a visually stunning, captivating film that lives up to the hype.
