Review: Interstellar

Interstellar

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine

Running Time: 169 mins

Certificate: 12A

It seems Christopher Nolan simply can’t put a foot wrong at the moment; anything he touches just turns to absolute gold. After tackling anarchy and terror in his Dark Knight Rises trilogy and the subconscious mind in Inception, Nolan’s latest flick takes us into outer space. With the Earth dying and its natural resources slowly running out, former astronaut, Cooper (McConaughey) along with three scientists (including Hathaway), must leave his family and travel through a wormhole located near Saturn in order to find a new home for the human race. The issues are not just the end of life on Earth but who placed the wormhole there in the first place? I will certainly try my best not to reveal any plot spoilers that aren’t already made abundantly clear in the trailer already.

I’ll get this out of the way. You HAVE to see this on an IMAX screen. Any other medium will simply do an injustice to the, what can only be described as, enthrallingly stunning visuals on show. Over an hour of footage of Interstellar was shot on 70mm IMAX so make sure you check it out on the biggest screen you possibly can!

Nolan has been responsible for some truly jaw dropping visuals in his films in the past, some of the most notable including Inception’s city bending scene and rotating hotel corridor scuffle, however they are blown out of the water in Interstellar with some truly mesmerising effects. Though it’s not only the space visuals that are impressive; the scenes set on the various potentially habitable planets are gloriously detailed; in particular, a waterlogged hellhole with humongous tsunamis, shot in Iceland are immensely detailed and make a truly bleak planet look magnificent.

You’d be forgiven for thinking this is a film all about style with no substance, and in the hands of other directors/writers (Nolan once again partnered up with younger brother Jonathan to pen the script) this could very well be the case. It takes 45 minutes for us to reach space, in which time Nolan has carefully built up the relationship between Cooper and his family, particularly to that of daughter, Murphy, played terrifically by Mackenzie Foy who contributes to one of the more tear-jerker scenes of the film. This ambitious idea could easily have drifted out of lesser director’s hands into the depths of space, but it’s this slow, family orientated build up that keeps Interstellar grounded, keeping the heart well and truly at the centre of the films core even in the cold depths of deep space.

That’s not to say that Nolan keeps the film straight faced throughout the 169 minutes (which fly by). Nolan has always allowed for the odd moments of light hearted humour in his back catalogue, and Interstellar is no different. There are some wonderfully funny moments shared between Cooper and bulky A.I. sidekick, TARS, who has had his humour and honesty settings programmed to 100% and 90% respectively.

The inevitable comparisons with 2001: A Space Odyssey is evident throughout Interstellar, not only in terms of the visuals but particularly with the narrative too with talk of wormholes, deep space exploration and human evolution. However this is a film set apart entirely on its own, to draw any comparisons would do it a disservice and take credit away from what is a phenomenon in what can be done with visuals in cinema. Last year, Gravity set the bar with its stunning imagery; Interstellar blows it out of the water completely.

It does have its flaws however. It is difficult for a film with a subject matter as complex as this to ensure that the audience can stick with the narrative. It tries hard to make the complicated subject matter understandable to its audience however finding the difference between a multifaceted subject and clumsy, convenient exposition is a difficult trick to pull off, even to the best. It sometimes gets confused with either delivering a third year degree lecture on relativity or smacking someone on the head with a GCSE physics textbook, cramming the audiences head with explanation. It would help to have Brian Cox sat next to you with a remote to hit pause to explain things now and then.

In the end though, this is simply a story about the relationship between a father and daughter, nothing more, nothing less. 

The space exploration is simply a (pretty enormous) backdrop on what is essentially a heart-warming (and often heart-breaking tale), sentiment to the bond between Cooper and Murphy, and his need to leave. Family is a recurring theme with Nolan’s work, in particular his Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception, and in Interstellar, he manages to keep the theme at the heart of the film, regardless of the huge spectacle that could easily overawe a lesser director.

What did you think? Have your way below.