Interstellar (2014)
Certified: PG
Duration: 169 minutes
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley, Bill Irwin, Josh Stewart, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, John Lithgow, Topher Grace, David Oyelowo, Matt Damon
KRS Releasing Ltd

Interstellar is set in a ravaged earth in a not-too-distant future. A disease has laid low earth’s capacity to continue producing sustenance for mankind.

Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) had once been an engineer and test pilot and is now barely making ends meet as a corn farmer. He is a widower with two children: Tom (played by Timothee Chalamet in teenage years and Casey Affleck as an adult) and Murph (played by Mackenzie Foy as a 10-year old and Jessica Chastain in adult phase).

At one point, he and Murph discover a phenomenon. Cooper manages to find coordinates within this occurrence. When he follows these coordinates he finds a Nasa site that had been kept hidden.

Here he meets professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathway).

The two inform him of a wormhole and the space mission that is planned with Dr Romilly (David Gyasi) and Dr Doyle (Wes Bentley). This will determine whether on the other side there is a planet on which humans can live.

Cooper ends up joining the group and thus he leaves his children in the custody of Donald (John Lithgow), his father-in-law.

Murph is not happy about this and believes that something is visiting her room. She thinks she is receiving messages. Cooper tries to convince her that he is trying to save humanity and that if he makes it back to earth, he and she will both be the same age.

Once the expedition starts, trouble ensues, especially when they meet another scientist (Matt Damon) who had gone on an expedition before them.

Christopher Nolan has become a director whose every movie becomes an event movie, generating an immense amount of hype.

But Interstellar skips beyond the hype, resulting in a juicy, interesting and visually immersive movie.

The director, who has taken on wild and unusual journeys and made films such as Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy, here makes a statement about the future and pays tribute to Stanley Kubrick.

It’s not Nolan as we know him as he seems to have let a softer side of him appear. However, he is also sending out a message that there is hope for earth and its inhabitants, but this hope does not lie here on earth.

Interstellar is a complete package, one that will have you discussing it long after it ends

This film is as much hard science fiction and real science fiction as Hollywood can permit. It is visionary and massive in its approach but never clunky. Visually, it is a splendid aesthetic piece of film-making as it takes the audience to visual heights never seen before.

The film excels in the way it depicts both earth and the dimensions and environments that are explored. We are treated to a very ‘realistic’ portrayal of the future, where even the robots look real.

The director weaves his tapestry carefully at times, distractedly in others and yet everything seems to be in cohesion.

It is inevitable that the stellar cast may get a bit lost in all the grandiosity of the film but it is game and its effort is very evident.

The theory of relativity dominates the film as time moves at different rates for the people doing the exploration and the people back on earth.

Amid all this is Nolan’s sense of melodrama as he focuses on Cooper’s ties with Murph, a thread that interlaces the proceedings.

Interstellar is a complete package, one that will have you discussing it long after it ends, very typical for a Nolan movie.

Whether you are a fan or not of the director, Interstellar is one to watch and analyse more than once. ­