Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew MacConaghey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, David Gyasi, Michael Caine, Bill Irwin, Casey Affleck, Mackenzie Foy, Timothee Chalamet, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Topher Grace, David Oyelowo, Ellen Burstyn
These days a blockbuster could take years to come into existence, setbacks including casting difficulty and constant rewrites of the script. Christopher Nolan is one of those few directors who no one can say no to when offered a gig. His new passion project, Interstellar, was announced just early last year and instantly went to shooting but a mix bag of critical responses question if the Brit has pulled it off again.
In a near future where blight ravages the world, former engineer and single father Cooper (MacConaughey) investigates a gravitational anomaly is the bedroom of his young daughter, Murphy (Foy). This leads him to a secretly ongoing branch of NASA, led by Brand (Caine), who recruit him as part of a four man crew to enter a newly emerged wormhole in hopes of finding a sustainable replacement to Earth.
Pushing a risky 170 minute runtime, this has to be one of the most ambitious efforts ever committed to film, and in this case it actually was. Scrapping digital reinforces the theme of a second hand, dirtied world. This is a production completely unchained and unlimited in scope; not a shot is out of line from the near-barren plains of the mid-west to the genuinely stunning landscapes of distant planets.
Sound, design and cinematography (a first collaboration with Hoyte van Hoytema) are all note perfect but the driving force is Chris Nolan. It’s his unrivalled amounts of innovation that sets Interstellar apart. Scene after scene showcases a rare cinematic magic: a tear filled MacConaughey leaving through the fields as the countdown begins; the journey through the wormhole; the colossal threats of Miller’s planet. These stark images are craftsmanship of the highest standard from a remarkable mind.
The other major technical contributor is composer Hans Zimmer who shines with a compelling and numbing organ-based soundtrack. This is far from his best work though, greatly deprived of his iconic use of percussion. Its main purpose is as an audio aid to the blistering visuals.
The narrative, initially instigated by physicist supervisor Kip Thorne but helmed by Chris and Jonathan Nolan, isn’t to the same vein of the unravelable puzzles of Memento and Inception but it still requires the same ongoing dissection. Unlike the two aforementioned works, this doesn’t build upon its own established but a mixture of scientific fact and theory. The phrase mind-boggling falls short of describing Thorne’s concepts, in particular the different passing of time. There’s now doubt that the science works out but this culminates in a more fantastical ending that may not stand up to more rigorous scrutiny.
The plot itself follows Cooper, a weary Mid-West single father and former engineer. He raises the educationally fledging Tom, an fiercely underdeveloped character, and the prodigious Murphy with their grandfather Donald (John Lithgow). Cooper may well be the nondescript American hero (with a perhaps indecipherable accent to suit) but the scene in which he numbly watches twenty years of family history within minutes before breaking down both redeems MacConaughey and proves him as the capable leading man he is.
Although he is the leading man, the plot obviously hinges on his daughter Murphy, a budding scientist taken under the wing of Michael Caine’s ageing Professor Brand. The young Mackenzie Foy in superb as an abandoned girl naively believing that her father will return. She morphs into Jessica Chastain, a cynic who comes the the realization that Cooper is lost and that humanity’s survival lies with her. With cunning, smarts and deep rooted inner complications, Murphy has to be the heroine of the year so far.
The film’s other key relationship is between Brand and his daughter Amelia, excellently played by Anne Hathaway, but this doesn’t quite pack the same emotional impact as the other – the two share very little screentime. The two perform greatly as individuals though: Caine plays a fabled Moses type character weighed down by his responsibilities and compromised by his cold approach to humanity’s future but alternatively Amelia is thrown by her own emotional attachments. It’s a grave comparison from the Coopers’ bond to this paternal fragility and it’s great to see scientists portrayed not as eccentrics but characters with very human contradictions and faults.
Beyond these central roles and fairly nondescript popups from Murph’s husband Topher Grace and dull astronaut Wes Bentley, there are the odd stand out roles. Relative newcomer David Gyasi is superb as Romilly, the crew member left behind on the Endurance while the others embark to the first planet for however many years it takes. His traditional performance isn’t a scratch however on Bill Irwin’s wry portrayal of TARS, a helper robot who adds a rare bit of warmth and humour (the new Eames?) that Nolan perhaps needs. The design itself is more practical than iconic but it still becomes a root-worthy supporting player.
One star sourly undernourished on screen is Casey Affleck as Tom, the near-forgotten son of Cooper. Starting off as a well mannered teen destined for a fortune lesser than his sister’s and suddenly becoming a domestic monster imprisoning his endangered family, He has one of the film’s most starling transformations but skips the transition period: there’s beginning, cause and aftermath but no gradual development. The Assassination of Jesse James’ brilliant Oscar nominated star could have made something special out of the role but it sinks into a standard backing appearance.
Despite this none of the performances actually let down in quality, just quantity. Its quantity in visual scope, emotional depth and mass of content however won’t bore but permits a chance to revel for even longer in sheer brilliance. While the scientific dialect will baffle some, the dialogue itself isn’t quite the complex maze of Memento, as slick as Inception or as iconic as The Dark Knight trilogy and there are the odd dud lines (Hathaway’s “love transcends the universe” speech falls short). The opening scenes are packed with poor exposition, especially a meeting between Cooper and school principal David Oyelowo in which they awkwardly cover history leading to these events.
There was a fair amount of criticism of the supposed anti-agrarian message mixed with elitist ideals of otherworldly ambition but what Interstellar superbly evokes is the most raw of emotions: selfishness, selflessness, survival and sentimentality. In the far reaches of space Nolan masterfully crafts his most human picture yet. Perhaps inferior to Inception, this is one awe inspiring and phenomenally acted ode to life, the universe and everything.
10/10
“We must reach far beyond our own lifespans. We must think not as individuals but as a species. We must confront the reality of interstellar travel.”
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