Interstellar. I'm really not quite sure how to begin. Christopher Nolan's latest effort took 169 minutes to blow my mind, minute by minute. Never before has my brain been so challenged from the comfort of my cinema seat (yup, even more so than Inception and Shutter Island). But it is, by far, the most epic film I have seen in a long time.
I attended the European Premiere of Interstellar at the BFI IMAX, which meant rubbing shoulders with Stephen Hawking. There was also a very impressive model of the featured spaceship. Walking through the doors, I didn't know what to expect. I avoided reading detailed reviews beforehand but knew three things:
- It happens in space
- It's a long film
- Ratings are currently through the roof (9.5 on IMDB as I write this)
So, off to a good start! (Before you really start, however, do not read on if you know you want to watch Interstellar with blank expectations.)
It's easiest to introduce the characters first. Matthew McConaughey gives a stellar performance as Cooper, a father who's thrown in the deep end when he has a tough decision to make (understatement of the century) between leaving behind his two children, and attempting to save the world quite literally. He's an explorer deep down but a father too, and that's where the emotion begins to fill the core of the film. I've noticed other reviewers have commented heavily on the familial element, and for me, Matthew does a fantastic job of carrying it. Another key character is Murph (named after Murphy's law; you'll see the relevance), the smart daughter who is much more than the cute onscreen token child (played by the highly capable Mackenzie Foy and later Jessica Chastain). The rest of the ensemble cast are utterly convincing, with a few surprise cameos and familiar Nolan Faces such as Michael Caine (well we couldn't have one without him!?) and Anne Hathaway, whose character is cool albeit slightly annoying.
The film takes place in a kind-of-dystopian planet Earth, though not too far in the future. In a world that resembles the inhabitable environment of Wall-E, we find NASA's final attempt at locating another home for the human race by using a wormhole. So it goes from natural disaster film to space epic. With the characters' stories on Earth running in tense parallel. The thing that differs is that it's not a fantasy space film like Star Wars - it's meant to be our world as we know it (kind of), and it invites you to use all the logic in your brain. The wormhole can connect widely separated regions of spacetime. Enter all the sciencey stuff...
For someone who is not the most scientific of the bunch - even if I do have an A* in GCSE Physics - concepts are explained so don't panic. With paper diagrams too, no less. The film explores relativity of time; add that to the family complex and you've got a desperate race against time. But not just any "time" - it's the kind where my inner Doctor Who fan says "timey wimey stuff" at me until I pretend to understand. But you've definitely got enough time to get your head around it! Interstellar was made with Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist acting as scientific advisor. Sure, there are moments where I thought, "really!?" but there's enough to make you accept things as they are and accept new "knowledge" as they discover it.
The film is thought-provoking and ambitious. Original. Personal. Bold and visually stunning. The script is subtle and it slips in little snippets of humour but you learn to appreciate it's not there to make you laugh. Granted, I cried a bit/a lot, but that's another story. It's grand, too. Another universe? No problem. The CGI is splendid and seamless, and some of the space views remind you of last year's Gravity, and then some. The spine-tingling music, juxtaposed with shock silence, was a success thanks to Hans Zimmer (who else did you expect?). Basically, it's not really rocket science to gather that I was more than impressed by the film. And of course, it's a Christopher Nolan film so you can expect that things aren't always straightforward; he's the master of the unexpected and I absolutely will not go into further detail. Watch. The. Film.
Like Inception, it's a film you have to watch from start to finish to fully understand what on earth's going on - if you pardon the pun. For me, what made it what it was, were the intelligent spacetime elements combined with an ultimately simple but heartfelt story - a father separated from his family. Sure, the script isn't perfect, and it's a tad cheesy and there may or may not be scientific objections, but it's fiction. Nolan and co. grab you in from the start and don't let go until long after the film when you've analysed it and reanalysed it over and over again.
The bottom line is: watch it.
(It's out of this world. Too far?)
- Thursday, October 30, 2014
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