This is a spoiler-free review. Enjoy!
PLOT: As earth in the near future becomes uninhabitable, a team of astronauts venture through a discovered wormhole to a distant galaxy in an attempt to find a new planet for humans to colonize.
REVIEW: While the events of the film take us millions of miles away to the far reaches of space, what Interstellar really does is bring the director who could do no wrong, Christopher Nolan, back down to earth.
There is a surprising inconsistency and lack of focus of the film. Someone needed to help reign this back in.
Certain aspects of the story are over-emphasized while others are simply forgotten. We have too many scenes of characters drawing diagrams on dry erase boards to explain the science behind the movie and help us along, taking up minute upon minute of screen time. And yet, when the astronauts finally cross the wormhole and reach their first possibly habitable planet in another galaxy, we don’t get a closeup visual effect depicting what the planet even looks like from space.
I’m not saying they cheaped out on the visuals. Hardly. There are some truly epic sequences, and unique effects I hadn’t seen before. It’s just that amidst the attempted scope of it all, it’s the simple things, like showing what the supposed planet of destiny for the human race looks like from space, which are simply lost in this film.
The reason this movie wants so badly to tug at your emotions but keeps the experience hollow is because of these forgotten beats.
The nuts and bolts are all in place. Story points planted at the beginning, according to formula, pay off at the end. Matthew McConaughey’s character, Cooper, embodies the best of humanity: Our courage, our spirit, our fear, our love. His connection to his daughter, Murph, played nicely by both Mackenzie Foy and Jessica Chastain, reminds us of how vital our bond with family can be. We spend a lot of time focused on this.
And yet, at one point, the astronauts set foot on a new planet. None of them have ever even seen another planet in person, let alone physically walk on one after having traveled through a wormhole in space. Might there have been just one brief moment where someone says, “Oh, wow, look at where we are and what we are doing!” Instead, the characters all act like, “Meh, been there done that. Let’s get on with it.” Granted, the plot and drama dictate that events get sped up, so its not like the characters have the time to go on vacation when they’re there, but that becomes just an excuse that ignores an obvious flaw.
If we spend so much time in the movie analyzing science and theory and having moralistic discussions, we at least need to also experience the fantastical wonderment of what we are are witnessing on screen. The science is getting explained before our very eyes. We are there. There’s Saturn. There’s the wormhole. There’s a planet we might be able to colonize. And yet, the way all of this actually plays out is of a passing glance, and that may be one of the biggest disappointments of Interstellar.
Remember that scene from Jurassic Park when they take the transports through the park for the first time, they don’t see anything at first, and Dr. Malcolm says, “Now, there are going to be dinosaurs on the tour, right?” Interstellar felt very similar.
2001: A Space Odyssey might test our patience and be painfully slow from the perspective of today’s audiences, but it also allows you to feel what it’s like to be in space. It may take 20 minutes for a spaceship to land on the moon, but along with that, we, as the audience are saying, “Wow, we are literally on the moon right now.” There’s a tactile, tangible sensation we experience as a result, which connects us to the movie. Could Stanley Kubrick have trimmed 10 minutes out of each of these sequences? Sure. But by decidedly not doing so, by the end of the film, we truly feel as though we have been to the far reaches of our galaxy and beyond.
Perhaps it’s unfair to suggest Interstellar is trying to be 2001, but certain comparisons are so obvious, it’s as if Nolan wants us to link the two. This is his attempt at 2001.
It’s just baffling to me that a movie made in 1968 is ultimately a more impressive visual experience than one made with the palette of technologies at the director’s disposal today. Nolan could have literally painted anything he wanted on that giant IMAX screen. The Jupiter we see even in 2010: The Year We Make Contact (above), from 1985, is so much more awe-inspiring than the Saturn Nolan shows us.
I will say this: This was not an easy movie to make. Nolan is still one of our great filmmakers, and there is a quality and an integrity to his productions that are virtually unparalleled in today’s cinema. The “passing glance” visuals I keep referencing were not easy feats to achieve, I’m sure. It’s still a remarkable piece of filmmaking that is well-worth a watch on the big screen simply for the experience of it.
There are also very interesting themes that get explored in this movie, most notably the concept of aging in space in relation to those on earth, tethered to the Theory of Relativity, and the implications and decisions that are made as a result. At one point, the characters reference the fact that spending one hour on one of those planets equates to seven years back on earth. That means Murph will have gone from 11 years old to 18 essentially the second Cooper sets foot on the planet. That’s just one hour. Four hours on the planet, and his daughter’s entire life would have passed before his very eyes.
What resonates the most to me about this notion is how precious our time on earth really is. In the blink of an eye, life can pass us by. For Cooper, the drama stems from the idea that this can literally happen if they aren’t very careful with what they are doing. For us, too often we look ahead to what may or may not be on the horizon in our lives. It’s a reminder of the importance of taking the time to slow things down and enjoy living and experiencing the moment, even briefly, because that individual moment in itself can bring a lifetime of joy.
Interstellar isn’t able to properly address these themes it wants us to explore and the questions it compels us to ask. It’s still a heck of a ride, but to where, I’m just not really sure.
Grade: C.