Interstallar (2014)
*Review contains mild
spoilers*
Christopher Nolan films now seem to arrive with so much anticipation and furore, keeping so many details about the film under wraps until the last possible moment, it puts a lot of undue pressure on for it to be something special.
Christopher Nolan films now seem to arrive with so much anticipation and furore, keeping so many details about the film under wraps until the last possible moment, it puts a lot of undue pressure on for it to be something special.
And Interstellar is
sadly not very special. Although it offers a refreshing counterpoint
to a lot of the empty blockbusters that are rammed down our
throats on a monthly basis, encouraging the audience to think and
ruminate on big weighty topics, it's ultimately a noble failure.
We start out on Earth, the not too distant future. Humanity is on the brink, epic food shortages have brought the population to its knees, all land is given over to farming simple crops and people no longer look outwards with thoughts of exploration: Survival is key, and the focus is on staying bolted to our little rock.
We start out on Earth, the not too distant future. Humanity is on the brink, epic food shortages have brought the population to its knees, all land is given over to farming simple crops and people no longer look outwards with thoughts of exploration: Survival is key, and the focus is on staying bolted to our little rock.
Matthew McConaughey is
Cooper, an ex test pilot turned farmer (everyone is a farmer in the
future), a man who clearly doesn't belong in
the dust and longs for more. Frustrated at the lack of drive or
desire to grow and explore, it's not long before he stumbles upon a
secret NASA base and is recruited to take part in a top secret
mission through a worm-hole with the aim of seeking out a new home
for the human race.
There is plenty of positive to things to say about Interstellar. McConaughey in particular is excellent as Cooper, a smart and noble man who is constantly trying to do the best for his children. It's a challenging role, requiring subtle emotional touches and he pulls it off well. Likewise the other cast admirably dedicate themselves wholly to their characters, however most are given short shrift in the script department, given stilted and overly expositional dialogue to chew on rather than anything emotionally meaty. Poor Michael Caine (and Anne Hathaway as his daughter) suffer the brunt of this, with countless instances of cringe inducing semi-scientific bunkum spewing out of their faces. It's a crippling flaw for a film that wants to encourage the audience to look on in awe, but instead more often than not has us drifting off in boredom.
Narratively speaking, it's a grand and epic affair as one would expect, pin balling from the dying Earth into the far reaches of space, time and even into other dimensions. For the most part it all works well and the plot is surprisingly coherent, but even with the almost three hour running time, a lot of the big moments come across as strangely rushed. The notion of interstellar travel, of wormholes, black holes and relativistic time warps are all inherently compelling and lend themselves to comment on what humanity is, where we are and what we can become, but Nolan fumbles around so much with unnecessary detail and dry dialogue that the bigger picture often gets lost and apathy kicks in.
On the positive side, the film does take flight on more than one occasion, literally, once we're into the depths of space, with a whole host of lovely imagery being thrust our way, and a handful of impressive set pieces to keep things entertaining. Nolan has proven himself time and again to be a skilled director with technically impressive and often stunning set pieces, and Interstellar has some of his best.
There is plenty of positive to things to say about Interstellar. McConaughey in particular is excellent as Cooper, a smart and noble man who is constantly trying to do the best for his children. It's a challenging role, requiring subtle emotional touches and he pulls it off well. Likewise the other cast admirably dedicate themselves wholly to their characters, however most are given short shrift in the script department, given stilted and overly expositional dialogue to chew on rather than anything emotionally meaty. Poor Michael Caine (and Anne Hathaway as his daughter) suffer the brunt of this, with countless instances of cringe inducing semi-scientific bunkum spewing out of their faces. It's a crippling flaw for a film that wants to encourage the audience to look on in awe, but instead more often than not has us drifting off in boredom.
Narratively speaking, it's a grand and epic affair as one would expect, pin balling from the dying Earth into the far reaches of space, time and even into other dimensions. For the most part it all works well and the plot is surprisingly coherent, but even with the almost three hour running time, a lot of the big moments come across as strangely rushed. The notion of interstellar travel, of wormholes, black holes and relativistic time warps are all inherently compelling and lend themselves to comment on what humanity is, where we are and what we can become, but Nolan fumbles around so much with unnecessary detail and dry dialogue that the bigger picture often gets lost and apathy kicks in.
On the positive side, the film does take flight on more than one occasion, literally, once we're into the depths of space, with a whole host of lovely imagery being thrust our way, and a handful of impressive set pieces to keep things entertaining. Nolan has proven himself time and again to be a skilled director with technically impressive and often stunning set pieces, and Interstellar has some of his best.
So too, with such a dry
script, it's also a nice surprise to find some small humour, mainly
from interactions between McConaughey and a very entertaining AI
named TARS, a clearly HAL homaging robot created impressively with a
minimum of CGI.
Indeed, the visuals and
much of the story as a whole obviously homage and mimic Kubrick's
definitive 2001, and it's easy to see Nolan's lofty ambitions with
this regard; however never once does he come close to matching or
surpassing it in any way. Indeed, as admirable as Nolan's dedication
to old school effects are (there's some lovely model work here), the
insistent and repeated motif of the spinning space-craft seems
strangely lazy and gets boring quickly.
Come the finale fatigue is definitely setting in, and the ham fisted denouement seems crow-barred in. It's all very silly. It aims for emotion and wonder, but dwells too long on an admittedly neat plot point about about scrambled time and gravitational messages (it ends up making more sense than you'd expect) that the final emotional reunion with his daughter isn't given the time to breath that it needs and passes by without much notice. So too, the optimistic ending doesn't ring at all true with the bleak and often miserable goings on for the preceding 160 minutes.
Come the finale fatigue is definitely setting in, and the ham fisted denouement seems crow-barred in. It's all very silly. It aims for emotion and wonder, but dwells too long on an admittedly neat plot point about about scrambled time and gravitational messages (it ends up making more sense than you'd expect) that the final emotional reunion with his daughter isn't given the time to breath that it needs and passes by without much notice. So too, the optimistic ending doesn't ring at all true with the bleak and often miserable goings on for the preceding 160 minutes.
In all then, it's an
admirable piece of film making and Nolan does show considerable skill
with the action and visual elements, but with such lofty and
philosophical ambitions, a poor script, a bizarre lack of humanity
and poorly judged pacing prove to be critical flaws. It's worth
seeing, and it's very entertaining at times, but it's also a bit of a
wasted opportunity.
3/5
3/5
