Have you ever
walked out of a Christopher Nolan movie disappointed? Could you even think
about walking out of one? I never have! And this one is yet another signature
Nolan movie that ended with applause in the movie hall.
Interstellar is the story of a group of explorers on a voyage to build hope for the food starved and ‘about to collapse’ mankind.
The treatment of the plot is, not so new with ‘the earth is polluted, we need a new place to live …’ scenario - heard that before right? But Interstellar has this plot woven wonderfully into a story with classic Nolan flavoured twists & turns, emotions and visual cues. The technicalities used in the story keeps you engaged and intellectually stimulated (just like the multileveled dreams did in Inception).
Add to that the witty, dry comedy that will have you breakout into chuckles right in the middle of an intense twist gives a 100% to the humor quotient.
As for the background score by Hans Zimmer; it is quite different from what you would find in other Nolan movies that Zimmer has worked on. Interstellar’s score has an astronomical intrigue value to it, including absolute muted silence at times.
And of course Matthew McConaughey is brilliant as the protagonist, ’Coop’ (Cooper). His rendition of a passionate aeronautics pilot, of being a maverick even in tough times, and of being an ‘emotional’ toughie does justice to what the audience expects from a Nolan movie and so does his sense of timing.
However, there are still some things that I wished were different; Take the cast for instance, this is something that has always wowed me in the past … Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy and even in Memento. Christopher Nolan is known for repeating his brilliant talent pool across movies (Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard and of course Michael Caine), but the cast of Interstellar however did disappoint me a bit.
Sir Michael Caine, one of my favorite actors, wasn't convincing enough as a senior NASA physicist. Anne Hathaway (Dr Amelia Brand) is a much better Batwoman than an astronaut. For a critical member of a space mission Hathaway seriously looks like arm candy. Jessica Chastain (‘Murph’, Murphy) is crassly dramatic and Mackenzie Foy playing Murph as a little girl rendered the character far better.
I found that the first half of the movie dragged a bit as it makes you think ‘Okay! What are you getting at? But the second half is a thriller and makes up for the slowness of the first.
Interstellar is not my favorite Christopher Nolan movie, but still one of the best movies one might see this year. Although, I’d want to watch it at least once more, because I liked it and because there are some scenes that you just HAVE to watch twice to really understand, something that was also required in Nolan's Memento and Inception.
Rating 4/5
Based in Mumbai, Deepti is a travel writer and a content builder for various projects. As an avid movie-watcher, she believes film makers should respect the audiences’ intelligence and need for ‘real entertainment’. She also writes about her travels with her toddler on her blog - neverjetlagged.blogspot.com.
