A group of explorers make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
Interstellar comes from director Christopher Nolan, in what is his first film to follow the conclusion of the Dark Knight trilogy. With the success of his Batman trilogy, Nolan has clearly won a lot of creative freedoms and through films like Inception and now Interstellar, he strives to deliver something unique and thought provoking.
Teaming up again with Jonathan Nolan, the pair have developed a multilayered script, exploring a number of varied themes and relationships while relating it back in the context of the main plot of survival. In Interstellar we spend a surprising amount of time with McConaughey’s character Cooper as a father to his daughter and son, as well as delivering a heathy and confronting dose of social commentary on human behaviour, dwelling on both humankind’s strengths and weaknesses with a sobering look at a bleak future.
As we’ve seen before with Christopher Nolan, the story for Interstellar unfolds in an organic but non-linear fashion that helps preserve some of the mystery that has been superbly maintained throughout the film’s promotional campaign. As the film moves into the final act, events escalate in an unpredictable fashion while tying in subtle plot hooks that have been planted along the way and ultimately leaving things worthy of audience discussion long after the credits roll – in true Nolan style.
Making excellent use of its characters and their relationships to emphasise its points, Interstellar manages to strike some intense emotional beats while holding up a mirror to the audience and pointing out some broad behavioural patterns while suggesting there’s a better alternative to strive for.
Story aside cinematically Interstellar is a breathtaking, and gorgeous piece of cinema. The production values are outstanding and every dollar of its significant budget is reflected on screen, in a technical sense Interstellar is an absolute pleasure to watch as it takes full advantage of the cinematic experience, this is definitely not one to wait for a home release. The score for the film also deserves a shout out, once again Nolan decided to work with Hans Zimmer who developed something that evokes a strong emotional response to complement the onscreen performances.
Matthew McConaughey has gone from Dallas Buyers Club, to the Wolf of Wall Street and now Interstellar. Here he has some diverse material to work with and his performance is excellent. Managing to capture his character’s calculating and survivalistic nature, his ambition and key emotional moments, the character Cooper anchors the film with everything around acting as an extension of his experience. Alongside McConaughey is Anne Hathaway who doesn’t boast quite the same kind of material but is sound in her role as well, as is Jessica Chastain and Michael Cain who rounds things out nicely but are cornered in mostly one note roles here.
Interstellar boasts an epic tale, it tells the ultimate story of humankind’s survival, grounding it in a fear inducing future which helps invest the audience, and while it escalates events to a convoluted place, it keeps its heart planted in a very relatable theme of family and love, particularly around a father and daughter in their quest for survival.
I’m giving it 8 out of 10 stars, Interstellar is currently screening in cinemas around Australia.
