A truly lapsed film critic I am. No meaning behind the Yoda like wording to that but I have been very lazy in my committal to typing out my thoughts on films. Once again a film has roused me into dusting off the keyboard and setting to reviewing. Christopher Nolan is a name that gets my attention when it comes to choosing what to see in the cinema. In fact there are a good four films I would very much like to see at the moment (Mr Turner, Nightcrawler, Fury and The Imitation Game) and I've ended up seeing Interstellar twice. So obviously the jig is up already, I like this film . . . a lot. However like any good film critic I'm not blind to it's potential flaws and where it may possibly lead people to not want to line up to see it again.
I have a real fascination with space, like every kid that played with action figures and was brought up on a steady diet of Thunderbird's and Star Wars, I dreamed of being an astronaut at some point. I love looking up at the sky and wondering what life is like in the solar systems of those stars and the galaxies beyond. So space films always excite me, and when I heard Christopher Nolan was going sci-fi for his next picture I'd already strapped in for the ride.
Interstellar centres around Cooper, an ex pilot turned farmer since Earth slowly becomes uninhabitable due to a barrage of dust storms and blight that destroy crops. A twist of fate and a little persistence from his daughter Murph leads him to discover that there is a plan to save the human race. He must leave his family on Earth with no guarantee of when or if he will come back from a mission to discover a new home for human civilisation.
From the outset I was drawn in to the film, Matthew McConaughey is a perfect casting choice for Cooper, and not only that, he's in an imagined future that feels real. Life on Earth is simple, in fact it's almost idilic, if it wasn't for the dust storms. Cooper does what he can to support his family but his sense of adventure is still there, and it's palpable. His ability to do anything at the drop of a hat is underpinned in these first revealing set pieces of the film. The supporting cast lay some real emotional groundwork as Mackenzie Fox who plays young Murph delivers a terrific performance and really sells the gravity of the situation when Cooper leaves with no idea when or if he will come back.
Once we're off on our adventure the film wows and blows your mind with fantastic visual effects and adventures in to different horizons that bend time and space. You will be forgiven for not keeping up entirely with the concepts first time around. I love that Nolan has faith in his audiences ability to digest complex ideas that do take some serious concentration. His exposition of these concepts that appear throughout the movie are sometimes a little unwarranted, however in some cases you may find yourself thinking 'what the hell did he just say?'. However if you could play along with Inception, which is a lot easier to get your head around in my opinion, then you'll likely take most of this on board and make it through to the other side without scratching the skin off the top of your scalp.
Not fully understanding some of the jargon will not detract from your enjoyment here, the main focus is on Cooper and his drive to get home and to do anything it takes to get there. There are parts that feel a lot like Sunshine here as questions are raised regarding the motives of characters and how their goals could effect the course of the human race. Similarly like Sunshine and 2001: A Space Odyssey the visual effects and the visualising of space as something dangerous, haunting yet wholly exhilarating is there.
In a time where CGI has begun to look nearly unnoticeable it takes a film maker like Nolan to really hold the kind of people who use it like a crutch to account. The second you see these great space ship models with fantastic real lighting falling on them you have a greater belief that this is real, the more you can convince yourself of that, the more immersed you become. Throughout the film there are moments where other filmmakers would have used computer effects to fake things, but here the effort has been put in to make things real where it's deemed possible. It's a tactile environment, the hyper sleep pods, the ships the interiors and the robots that travel with the crew a lot of time it's all there in camera and you notice it. There are robots on board with the crew, and these are stupendously realised. Earlier scenes give the sense of 2001 or Alien where the robot could be deemed as sinister, but further in the film these rectangular creations will surprise and even make you crack a smile.
What also lifts the film is the use of the soundtrack. When Hans Zimmer works with Nolan you're likely to think ok so more electronic big bass noises reminiscent of The Dark Knight or Inception, and this is what I expected. However he's gone for big, but with church organs! The first flurry that arrives very early in the film is uplifting, it feels grand and adventurous and as the film progresses the swell just gets bigger. I instantly looked up the soundtrack after seeing this and have had it on several times, it's great.
The story as whole is focused on Cooper and Murph and how their relationship effects the both of them even when separated by hundreds or thousands of light years. Within this there's a drive from the astronauts and the scientists to quantify and understand, time, space and gravity . . . oh and love. If you buy it then the ending will feel like a good fit. I for one liked it and it made sense given the start point of the film and the themes that underpin the plot throughout. I suppose it might have been nice to leave it open like Nolan has the propensity to do, but here you get a rounded ending that I thought was satisfying. Others have not enjoyed it so much, and I can see the justification, but as a whole I really enjoyed this. So much so I went to see it again and loved it even more second time around.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
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