There is a surprising amount of mystery surrounding the film and plot. I suppose that's been the case for a lot of Nolan's films (how can you summarize 'Inception' in as few words as possible?). It's the not-too-distant future, when the world has been ravaged and society is stripped down to the bare essentials. We have intellectuals, we have farmers; the hunters and gatherers. Dust storms are frequent, crops are dying... Cooper (played spectacularly by Matthew McConaughey) raises his two children on a farm alongside his father-in-law. Life is like a Norman Rockwell painting - minus the joy, of course. There are strange occurrences in their house, particularly in the bedroom of his daughter, Murphy. Books fall off the shelf, dust seems to accumulate in morse code... Cooper rationalizes that ghosts aren't real, and Murphy attempts to prove him otherwise. Confused? The 'ghosts' seem to lead him to coordinates just on the other side of town, and to the surprise of everyone, he stumbles upon the underground offices of NASA, prepping for a series of missions to evacuate Earth and repopulate on habitable planets in a neighboring galaxy. Oh, and will you pilot the mission, Cooper?
The film requires a suspension of disbelief in nearly every scene, and for the most part the film succeeds in peaking our interest. How lucky that NASA was buried away in Cooper's backyard, and how lucky that he arrived to pilot the mission. What would they have done otherwise? Like last year's 'Gravity,' Nolan envisions space very much rooted in science. Outside of the spaceships, we hear no sound. The crew rests in hyper sleep for 2 years while they journey to Saturn. In fact, their research tells them that certain planets lie so close to blackholes that time will become relative, meaning that for every hour they spend on the surface, 7 years pass on Earth. The mission becomes as much about saving the species as it is about Cooper reuniting with his family before they die of old age.
Do I think this is a great film? No. While there is plenty of technical achievements to marvel at, the story seems to work far too hard at becoming something more spectacular than it is. Take the final few minutes of '2001.' Mysterious, out of place, and cryptic...We break away from the storyline to see a man grow old in wisdom. There is no climax, but it's equally as jarring. With 'Interstellar,' it is clear that a lot of the same imagery is attempting to be conjured, but the effect is no where near as powerful. As Cooper floats through time and space and wisdom, the film still believes it should function as an action movie. The editing is quick, the music swells... The final 30 minutes of the film feel like the epic climax that never happens. In reality the story is much more emotional, even spiritual. Combine it with crosscutting between Earth and the mission, and it becomes quite an emotional chore to keep track of all the separate stories.
The film is perhaps overly-long, and is is clear where edits could have been made. Cooper's son (what's his name again?) grows up to raise a family, and we have a few seconds worth of story in regards to a lung disease that is slowly killing them. But enough about that. On the spaceship, Brand (Anne Hathaway) discusses the ideas that love could be another dimension, just like time or space. For a character as level-headed as her, the scene feels out of character, and just as quickly as it comes, it disappears. An argument could be made that these moments are part of something deeper - a theme or metaphor.... Or it could just be filler.
Regardless, the film is technically marvelous. The effects are oftentimes dazzling, and the score by Hans Zimmer is ethereal in a way I wasn't expecting. While the film failed to live up to certain expectations, you can't blame Christopher Nolan for trying. In the end, though, his films are becoming more and more cryptic and less exciting. Compared to, say, 'The Dark Knight' or 'Inception,' 'Interstellar' is a visual achievement that lacks the usual entertainment value we have come to expect.
(Awards potential: Best Actor (McConaughey), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing)
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