Film Review: Interstellar

There always comes a time when children have to leave their parents. As children of the Earth, human beings may someday have to face a terrifying decision: leave mother Earth in search for a new home, or remain here to die. In the film Interstellar, mankind approaches this crossroad when the very dust of the Earth turns against us: a bleak future that mirrors the dustbowl, but on a global scale. As the film goes on, it becomes apparent that, thanks to the valor of the characters, we will not "go quietly into the night."

Space opera films are slow-burners by nature, and Interstellar is no exception. Although it runs more briskly than most, it still takes its time with the narrative. The first act is dedicated solely to the Earth-based drama (a bit along the lines of like The Right Stuff), which sets the scene and the necessity for the mission that follows. Once the characters reach space, the film's visual splendor emerges, offering stunning views of Saturn, of wormhole travel, of far-away planets, and more. The conflicts are subtle, but they come to a full boil towards the end, before the film delivers a really bizarre reality-bending twist. The denouement is ultimately satisfying, although it does leave off with a few loose strands that the audience will have to reconcile on their own.

What makes Interstellar especially noteworthy will be its creditability. Regardless of how far-out the plot goes, the film sports some very real-looking designs for the spaceships, robots, and Earth-based scenes. The depictions of black holes, wormholes, planets, and all their related phenomenon (including the laws of gravity, relativity, time, and extra dimensions) are handled far more realistically than most other films on the market. The film even manages to visually represent what a tesseract could look like; I personally never thought that extra-dimensional space could be portrayed on film at all, but Interstellar succeeds in a plausible manner.
Unfortunately, the experience may be spoiled for many by various issues. The film has a penchant for exposition, including detailed explanations of the science involved. There are moments where the music and sound design drowns out the dialogue. There are moments where characters act less than rational. The film also makes an overt attempt to really yank on the audience's heartstrings. Whether or not these same issues affect you may depend on your disposition on Christopher Nolan's other work (in which a lot of the same issues are apparent, especially in Inception), and the genre.

Despite those contrivances and script issues, I found the story to be quite impressive. It is a grand tale with a lot of big, high-concept ideas. The film's story meticulously weaves the characters, plot, and science in a tight knot. It is ultimately twisted around on itself to form a complex, but easily-digestible moebius strip of a tale. What makes it most endearing will be its characters, which show a tremendous amount of heart and emotional power, and the themes. The film makes some very bold assertions on human progress, suggesting that the stars hold our destiny, in addition to overarching ideas of love, life, and death.

The film is well-made, featuring quality photography. There are impressive visual moments throughout the film, but it's rarely frivolous. Sharp and quick editing ensures that the film uses only what it needs to for the storytelling. The actors do their jobs well: Matthew McConaughey is quite spot-on as the main character, and I enjoyed the performances of Anne Hathaway, and David Gyasi. I found Matt Damon's and Wes Bently's characters the least endearing, but not necessarily because of their performances. Michael Caine and John Lithgow are effectively typecast in their signature smart-old-guy roles. Despite all the clunky exposition, writing is pretty decent. This production has really functional and real-looking sets, props, and costumes. Special effects are phenomenal. Locales are great. Hans Zimmer's music score is majestic and powerful, and really adds to the experience. As noted before though, the mixing of the music, sound, and dialogue could have been done better in some scenes.

Not everybody will be captivated by Interstellar - some may find it dull, overrated, annoying, contrived, or something. As far as space operas go though, it is as strong of a film as Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, with themes and intellect that can rival Tarkovsky's Solaris. It is a natural evolution of Nolan's storytelling prowess, which he exercised previously in Memento and Inception. For its strengths as a story and film (and especially as a work of hard sci-fi), Interstellar is worth seeing at least once.

4.5/5 (Experience: Good | Story: Very Good | Film: Very Good)