Interstellar (2014)
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Interstellar Movie Review
Interstellar is a 2014 science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain among others. It’s an underrated magnum opus for Chris.
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“We used to look up at the sky
and wonder at our place in the stars.
Now we just look down,
and worry about our place in the dirt“
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In a dystopian future where humanity is struggling to survive, a group of astronauts travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for humanity. Let’s talk first about the story which is incredibly epic and superb in almost every plot point with a couple of reservations here and there.
I loved the beginning how suitably slower it was as it properly introduced us to the main characters and the father-daughter dynamic which would prove to be hugely important later on as the heart of the film. The entire second act is the most SF part of the film and it was glorious to behold. I loved that oceanic planet as it was visually dazzling and so well imagined.
But let’s talk about that polarizing third act. I personally appreciated the bookcase sequence. That was simply fascinating to me. I know that many call it the fantastical element in an otherwise scientifically sound and realistic movie, but we really do not know these things yet so something like this could happen someday so I was more than fine with it. It was probably the most memorable moment in the movie and the one that gave it true magical power.
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Yes, the movie is very scientific and grounded in reality. The wormholes and the black holes are both stupendously realized and mostly in the vein how the scientists propose them. And the fact that they got to an inhospitable planet first really gave the movie some needed urgency as well as brutal realism. The dystopia part was well presented too as well as space travel and its shortcuts.
Getting back to that third act, let’s comment upon the film’s extreme emotion. Yes, on the one hand I loved that Nolan finally made a movie that isn’t cold and heartless, but quite the opposite – human, beautiful and so touching. But on the other hand, some of those emotional beats were simply a bit too excessive, bordering on manipulative, and I do find his decision to only make his SF movie emotional when in reality this genre isn’t easily mixed with emotion very questionable. And the whole emphasis on love in terms of science was a bit silly for me.
However, I ultimately surrendered to its emotional manipulation simply because it was too real and too strong of an impact that it left. The scene where the father goes back to see her now extremely old daughter was simply heartbreaking. That entire relationship drives this movie as its heart and soul for sure. The movie is surprisingly human in that regard and that whole love aspect pleasantly reminded me of the Harry Potter franchise.
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Matthew McConaughey is a bit too emotional in some scenes, but he mostly sold those beats, and though an odd choice at first for this type of scientist role, I ultimately really liked him as Cooper and this surely is one of his last good performances before the McConnaisance ended. Jessica Chastain herself is reliably superb in her role as she always is, and I loved Murph both as an adult and as a kid. Finally a Nolan movie gave us a strong female character whom you could root for and get to know well.
Anne Hathaway as Brand is a bit problematic in that love aspect, but otherwise a very likable character well played by the actress. John Lithgow is a wonderful presence as he always is, and I also liked Michael Caine’s role here quite a bit. Casey Affleck is also good as Tom, but the character was a bit too unlikable.
I also liked TARS a lot and he was such an interesting-looking, differently designed robot who proved very helpful to the crew. Unfortunately, the other crew members weren’t as memorable. As for Matt Damon’s role, I really found him an unnecessary detour and the only weak spot of the movie. This overly cowardly, stupid man was difficult to watch, and those action-oriented scenes with him were too blockbuster-oriented and most definitely a distraction from the main story.
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Interstellar looks absolutely beautiful. Yes, it entirely deserved its Oscar for visual effects as the film is filled with constantly memorable images of wormholes, black holes, that icy planet, the tesseract and so on. Everything here looked polished and beautiful while being on the more realistic side as well.
But I could not say the same for the audio quality as the sound mixing is particularly problematic. The sound design is great, but the mixing is so bad as sometimes the dialogue couldn’t be heard properly because of all that background noise. The dialogue is excellent and although a bit too expository at times, I still loved the science in this movie and I found it sound and very sophisticated, and also interesting and not really done before this film. The runtime is long, but the movie’s so epic that it needed that time for sure. The direction from Nolan is also very good and this is by far his career-greatest movie in my opinion and it’s a shame more people don’t realize that.
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Thanks to many great scientific ideas superbly explored and a grounded in reality approach to it, Interstellar is a hard science fiction film that works across the board. Its third act also worked for me as the bookcase scene, though too fantastical to some, is for me the most memorable and most fascinating part of the film. Matt Damon’s character was a needless distraction, but all of the others were excellent with the father-daughter relationship being the heart and soul crux of the movie. The film is extremely emotional for this genre, but it mostly worked as it truly is very touching in that third act. The sound mixing is terrible, but the special effects are absolutely outstanding and a lot of the imagery here is quite unforgettable. The dialogue is also terrific as are the film’s well explored themes. Consequently, Interstellar is Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus and the only truly great film that he’s made so far.
