Space is no longer simply the Final Frontier. Director Christopher Nolan follows-up his “Dark Knight” trilogy and the critically acclaimed but highly overrated “Inception” with a sci-fi adventure that goes well beyond the phrase “To Infinity and Beyond”.
In “Interstellar”, Michael Caine (a Nolan staple) plays the head honcho at NASA. He repeatedly quotes lines from the classic Dylan Thomas poem “Do not go gentle into that good night”. Well, “Good night” might refer to the nap you may grab during the film’s 2-hour and 49-minute runtime, as this story mulls along at less-than time-warp speed. Overall, there are elements of “Interstellar” that work, but I expected so much more.
Matthew McConaughey stars as Cooper, a former NASA pilot and engineer turned farmer in a future world in which the human race is on the verge of extinction. It’s never explained why, but a lack of rain has turned Earth into a dust bowl (so let’s assume it’s global warming to blame). Cooper has two kids, including 10-year old daughter Murph. Cooper’s been told that her generation will be the last of the human species, that is, unless a new home can be found.
Cooper and Murph receive a mysterious message and soon stumble upon NASA’s secret headquarters (it was thought the agency was shut down), where Cooper reunites with his old professor (Caine) and meets his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway, sporting a similar hairstyle as Sandra Bullock in last year’s “Gravity”). Cooper is convinced to join Amelia and two other astronauts on a mission to find another habitable planet for the humans to live. They’re in a race to save the race.
But in typical Nolan fashion, time and space play a major role in this story. As Cooper and the others are traveling throughout the universe, everyone back home is getting older…quickly. And some of them (including a grown-up Murph) are also working hard to find a solution. It all gets rather muddled, and trying to follow the script’s logic dealing with the two key scientific issues – relativity and (ironically) gravity – only leads to more confusion.
“Interstellar” works best in the first act, which takes place mostly on the ground, and includes the highlight scene of the entire film, in which Cooper says goodbye to his very upset daughter before heading out on his mission. There’s true emotion and some very poignant details. However, once the action shifts to space, the story becomes surprisingly distant. Nolan’s never able to bring us inside the space station or onto the planets the astronauts explore. I watched but never felt drawn in.
The stellar cast also includes two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon in a “secret supporting role”, and Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn. In real life she’s 81 but apparently not old enough-looking for Nolan, since she’s forced to wear a ton of makeup. In fact, there’s a lot of playing fast and loose with time and logic in this film. At one point Caine’s character supposedly ages nearly a quarter century, but he hardly looks a day older. He’s even wearing the same shirt.
The visual effects on display in “Interstellar” are solid (including a wild trip through a black hole – where’s Morgan Freeman?), though not nearly as impressive as in “Gravity” or “Inception”. The dialogue is filled with plenty of “out of this world”/5th dimension mumbo-jumbo, and at times, is extremely corny, particularly in several far-fetched decision-making scenes included to keep the audience straight on what’s going on. And more than once I had a hard time understanding what was being said. Maybe Hans Zimmer’s overpowering soundtrack was the problem. And I did mention the giant, wise-cracking rectangular robots?
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Interstellar” gets a C. It’s epic in scale and scope, but unfortunately, not in execution. And it’s not worthy of Best Picture consideration, though I’m sure it will get plenty. I survived this journey, but I can’t say I enjoyed it.
I’ve figured-out what Nolan’s next film should be: Based off the similarly titled “Inception” and “Interstellar”, it’s a football drama called “Interception”. It stars Channing Tatum as an NFL QB looking to win Super Bowl M (it’s got to be in the future) with his newly out-of-retirement head coach, played by – who else – Michael Caine.