Yes, my husband and I saw Christopher Nolan’s space epic “Interstellar” this past weekend. I was a bit leery beforehand since Nolan’s prior movies “Inception” and “Memento” produced headaches over their fragmentation of time in the storylines, and I knew time would also be an element in “Interstellar” as well. But this film is much more inviting and engaging than either of those.
It’s about a group of space explorers sent by NASA who travel through a worm hole in outer space to expedite their passage to other planets that might be habitable. You see, life on Earth has become a living hell with food shortages and blights, so NASA has been working to find another home for the human race. Matthew McConaughey stars as Cooper the head pilot who will lead a crew of three other astronauts on their way to find a home for thousands of human embryos. But unfortunately, Cooper, a single dad, will have to leave his two kids behind on Earth, and his journey might take years if ever he’s to return.
The first hour of the movie starts off a bit slowly as the plot and characters are being set up, and during this time Cooper ends up miraculously finding a secret bunker that happens to house the NASA center. Of course, given he’s an ex-test pilot, it turns out the bigwigs at NASA want him to lead their expedition, which he ultimately can not resist.
Once the spaceship takes off the film picks up and gets interesting. It’s best not to know too much beforehand about the astronauts’ journey, which includes going through worm holes, dark holes, and other dimensions. But soon the astronauts learn their journey’s going to take much longer than they expected and meanwhile Cooper’s kids are growing up with the hardships on Earth. It’s a race against time really and a time-travel story too because time on Earth and in deep space aren’t exactly linear. Scenes aboard the space craft are interspersed with scenes of what’s going on back at Earth, and you begin to wonder:
Will Cooper and the astronauts find a suitable planet? Will his kids connect with him again? The film offers surprises along the way and likely will test one’s sense of perception and timetables. For all its special effects, the film apparently sticks pretty close to established science and the speculation of what’s possible, says Kip Thorne, the physicist whose work inspired the film.
I enjoyed “Interstellar,” especially since it generates discussion long after it’s over. My husband and I talked about the film all the way home and more. I wanted to understand the ins and outs of it, which I did in general especially with the help of talking about it. I know there are various websites pointing out the film’s plot holes and incongruities, which in a science/time-travel story such as this there are bound to be. But overall the film is an intriguing exploration and a well-worthy journey. It’s thought-provoking, adventurous, and includes a few hokey parts about the transporting nature of love as well. This film scored for me whereas some of Nolan’s other films have not. My husband even thought the ending suggested a possible sequel. Could one be in the works?
How about you — have you seen this movie or do you plan to — and what did you think?
I’ve been reading positive reviews of this movie, trying to understand what it is I missed.
For me, this was Nolan’s worst–utterly ambitious but terribly anticlimactic, with some very laughable dialogues about love. At the end I was left struggling to grasp the point of it all beyond the tribute to the great human will–which could have been done in less than a three-hour hodgepodge ordeal.
Would love to hear a more detailed analysis from you.
My husband and I just saw Interstellar and I really enjoyed it. I loved Christopher Nolan’s other movies, but was nervous going into this one since I’d heard quite mixed reviews. Though it was quite different from what he usually does and edged a little too sentimental, I thought it was smart and found a good balance of several elements.
Yes I agree. It had quite a few elements to it. I liked it too!
I loved Nolan’s Batman trilogy, though Inception not so much. This one was very well made with intriguing special effects to aid the visualization of the concepts it explained. Overall, it was a solid four stars rating for me.