Movie Review: Interstellar

Interstellar aims so high that it occasionally misses.  Such ambition is not to be criticized.  It’s to be applauded.

Reviewing Interstellar, the latest sensory tour-de-force by ingenious writer-director Christopher Nolan, I’m reminded of the late film critic Roger Ebert and his daring assessment of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 flawed epic, Apocalypse Now.

He wrote, “It shames modern Hollywood’s timidity.  To watch it is to feel lifted up to the heights where the cinema can take you, but so rarely does.”

The same could be said of Interstellar.

Much like that previous journey into (the Heart of) Darkness, Interstellar is at times both confusing and far-fetched.  That’s because, as with his previous films, Memento, The Dark Knight, and Inception, Nolan steadfastly refuses to take the easy route.  He spurns the notion of conveniently connecting the dots of clarity for us, preferring instead to let his audiences ponder their own interpretation.  To his credit, this reveals unmistakable respect for filmgoers, allowing everyone who sees the movie to take away a different meaning from the theater.

Here, Nolan, who co-wrote the script with his brother (Jonathan Nolan), devises yet another overly-ambitious brainchild adventure of a futuristic world where man and machine are melded, pushing the limits of the imagination both figuratively and cosmically.  Falling short of the lofty target isn’t the point, as much as taking aim and firing.  Even a firework shot into the night sky that misfires can be a spectacular vision.  And so it is, with Interstellar.

The story begins about ten years into the future.  While the earth is undergoing cataclysmic environmental changes which endanger its food supply (there’s a subtle hint here of the devastating impacts of global warming ahead), survivors desperately try to retain some sense of normalcy in their lives, longing for the way things were before a catastrophe.  The world’s population has been drastically reduced from 6 billion to considerably less, and the situation is about to get far worse.  More like dire.  Within just a few decades, all the crops on earth will eventually fail, dooming everyone still around to slow but inevitable starvation.

With the survival of the species resting upon his shoulders, a former test pilot and astronaut “Cooper,” played by recent Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, accepts the audacious challenge of venturing out into the unknown universe and looking for another planet able to sustain human life.  Fortunately, NASA scientists have discovered an intergalactic wormhole, which is accessible by earthly rocket ship, leading to an unmapped galaxy far beyond our astrophysical comprehension.  It’s a risk that would have made Christopher Columbus seem like a loafer.

Interstellar soars not because of the science of special effects, breathtaking as they are, which come close to matching last year’s space-themed cinematic showpiece, Gravity.  In fact, most futuristic movies fail critically because they are so utterly one-dimensional, relying upon high-tech not as an accessory to the story, but as a crutch masking a void.  To its credit, the film has a riveting plot, occasionally ripping at our heartstrings while managing to hold our interest for the full 169 minutes because of the wide gambit of emotional intensity displayed by these brave adventurers.  Supporting performances by Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, and Jessica Chastain are equally as strong.  There’s also a surprise cameo in the middle of the film by a popular actor which goes completely against typecast.

The film’s powerful musical score, written and conducted by the great Hans Zimmer, also merits acclaim.  As the story slowly builds scene by scene towards an unchartered and unforeseeable climax, Zimmer’s pulsating mix of cathedral organs layered atop modernistic orchestration comes across as the perfect acoustical alchemy for this excursion of suspense.  This score is a masterpiece of music in cinema.

As with all great and near-great movies, Interstellar will leave you reflecting upon what you’ve seen hours and even days after watching it.  Nolan conjures up a smorgasbord of philosophical queries about science and humanity and the interconnection of the two.  Moreover, this film offers quite a revelation to the power of love and the inherent human instinct for survival.  As we see, these two predispositions — the need for love and the will to survive — are not one and the same.  They can even conflict under the most extreme circumstances.

Indeed, Interstellar aims so high that it occasionally misses.  Such ambition is not to be criticized.  It’s to be applauded.

Although flawed and occasionally implausible, I still score Interstellar with an 11 for effort, and a 7 for execution — combining for a grade of 9 on a scale of 1o.  This makes for one of this year’s few must-see films.

TAG: Best movies of 2014 Interstellar