INTERSTELLAR review

After months of hype, INTERSTELLAR finally hits theaters. Does it live up to the hype? Not quite. There is brilliance to be found in this ambitious film and furthermore,  INTERSTELLAR is well worth seeing in a theater, particularly in Imax. Just taper those expectations, because this time-bending sci-fi epic doesn’t resonate or exhilarate in the same way that 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY does nor is it as moving or as awe inspiring as CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.  I only bring up these iconic Kubrick and Spielberg works because clearly, these are the two films that director Christopher Nolan appears to most be emulating. This isn’t to suggest that INTERSTELLAR is a rip-off but clearly, the previously mentioned films are major influences.

In a not too distant future, Earth’s crops are dying out and we are on the verge of living out the rest of our limited days in a perpetual dust bowl. Farm boy turned explorer Cooper  (played by a truly committed Matthew McConaughey) has had his fill of naysayers who don’t believe that Neil Armstrong actually walked on the moon, and because our planet is in dire straits, he has a chance to prove how far we’ve come when he’s hand picked by a scientist (wonderfully played by an underused Michael Caine) to lead an expedition crew into space, travel through a worm hole, and attempt to find a new inhabitable world where mankind can continue to prosper. Of course, by leaving Earth, a reluctant Cooper will have to leave his young children behind and this doesn’t sit well with them…or him.

There seems to be a misconception that director Christopher Nolan doesn’t have much of a hopeful outlook when it comes to the world we live in, but it should be noted that while his BATMAN films paint a rather dark and cynical portrait of society, there is hope to be found. Look at THE DARK KNIGHT, for instance. While The Joker is filmdom’s ultimate anarchist, his plan to turn people against one another ultimately fails because the majority of  Gotham’s residents refuse to bow down to his unreasonable demands. Likewise, INTERSTELLAR deals with deception, lies, and people with hidden agendas, but ultimately, it offers up a very hopeful message. Truth be told, this might be Nolan’s most optimistic film.

Nolan tends to be rather cerebral with much of his work but with INTERSTELLAR, he wears his heart on his sleeve more than ever before. Perhaps too much. At the center of INTERSTELLAR is the clear cut message that love transcends time and space. A message that would have proved more powerful had co-star Anne Hathaway not suggested as much in a heavy handed monologue. This message is already promoted loud and clear through the relationship between Cooper and his daughter Murph. For whatever reason though, Nolan feels compelled to explain far too much through long stretches of un-needed exposition. These long stretches take INTERSTELLAR to an overbloated 2 hour and 45 minute running time. Clunky pacing and thinly drawn characters, including an almost unnecessary one played by Matt Damon, don’t help matters.

Thankfully, Nolan the showman dazzles the viewer by way of several spectacular sequences, a handful of them shot in breathtaking Imax. Included; an incredibly intense space station docking set piece, a visit to a planet with tsunami size waves, and a fantastical trip through a space anomaly.

Character wise, INTERSTELLAR has its issues. As was the case with Ridley Scott’s undercooked PROMETHEUS, the explorers in INTERSTELLAR don’t always feel or talk like you would actually expect explorers to feel or talk like,  but unlike PROMETHEUS, this movie benefits from a much more intriguing journey. McConaughey is fantastic as a father who must weigh his duty to mankind against his duty as a parent, and a scene in which Cooper receives messages from his children while aboard a space station is amongst the film’s most emotionally satisfying.

Of the cast, it is McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy, and Michael Caine who impress most while a great deal of the supporting players, including Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley, Topher Grace, and Casey Affleck,  feel disappointingly underwritten.

INTERSTELLAR is ambitious, but sometimes ambition does not a great movie make. True, I’ll take a beautiful mess from Nolan over a so called masterpiece from Michael Bay, but at the same time, for my money, GRAVITY is a more powerful movie. INTERSTELLAR and GRAVITY couldn’t be any more different in terms of  plot and execution,  but I’m more drawn to the simplicity, poetic beauty, and technical bravado of Alfonso Cuaron’s film over the epicness, exposition-heavy nature, and soul searching ambition of this flick. A friend of mine hit it on the nose when he suggested that GRAVITY is half as long and twice as good.  Again though, such a statement isn’t meant to suggest that INTERSTELLAR is a waste of time. There’s still quite a bit here to recommend.

The final act of INTERSTELLAR has stirred up debate and without going into spoiler territory, I actually quite liked it. It’s trippy, weird, and mind-boggling. Some might even call it a little silly, but I enjoyed it. It does have an M. Night Shyamalan vibe–in a good way– but it’s really more akin to something like Robert Zemeckis’ CONTACT. Unlike the ending of  the similarly themed CONTACT though, the final act of INTERSTELLAR gives the audience more to chew on and drives the importance of family to the forefront.

Throughout INTERSTELLAR, Cooper and his exploration team constantly refer to an otherworldly presence as “they” and the explanation behind who “they” are is intriguing.  It should also be noted that Cooper’s big trip is visually stimulating and technically innovative.  It’s too bad the final moments of INTERSTELLAR don’t quite pack the emotional punch that Nolan clearly intended.

Again, INTERSTELLAR is a big movie with big ideas and it’s the kind of film that demands to be seen on the biggest of screens, but I didn’t walk out of the theater whole heartedly fulfilled. Not all of the grand ideas and themes at the heart of INTERSTELLAR manage to come together in a completely cohesive fashion.  Simply put, while bold and beautiful, Nolan ultimately comes up a little short in  his earnest but monumental attempt at reaching  for the stars.