Interstellar

Copyright © 2014 by Paramount Pictures

Story
Food is scarce and Earth has become inhabitable due to its drastic climate change. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his daughter, Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) uncover the location to a secret NASA installation headed by Professor Brand (Michael Caine). Brand discloses the motive of this mission hoping for Cooper’s participation in piloting the ‘Endurance’ along with team mates, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), Romilly (David Gyasi), Doyle (Wes Bentley) and automatons, TARS (Bill Irwin) and CASE (Josh Stewart). They are tasked to retrieve data from three planets which are possibly suitable for mankind’s survival. The teams of Miller, Edmunds and Mann have been deployed through a wormhole and ‘Endurance’ makes its first visit on planet Miller. A costly mishap occurs and the team has only enough fuel for one more planet should they choose to return home. As time passes, the adult Murphy (Jessica Chastain) works tirelessly with Brand for a solution in transporting the rest of humanity away from Earth’s continued deterioration via gravity instead of rocket launchers.

Review
Acclaimed director, screenwriter and producer, Christopher Nolan who single-handedly reinvented the screen adaptations for comic books (‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy – a pinnacle with the second part garnering a posthumous Oscar for a scene-stealing Heath Ledger, the only superhero movie to produce a win in the acting category and is the most nominated in its genre, previously held by ‘Dick Tracy’) and developing mind-bending thrillers such as ‘Memento’, ‘The Prestige’ and ‘Inception’ (an exceptionally original concept years in the making) has done it again.

‘Inception’ took the fundamentals of a great heist film and ornamented it with the moralities of corporate espionage from the subconscious mind via shared dreaming in the guise of a summer blockbuster made more memorable by the breathtakingly poetic action. Watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt fending off highly trained subliminal projections in a revolving room is still a tough act for many to beat. In his latest, Nolan’s fascination for the sciences will assuredly elicit an upsurge of strong feelings.

You may be at odds on the plausibility of its outcome and it could leave you with even more unanswered questions than practical answers for its overarching quest about the unknown but there is no denying of Nolan’s profundity stamped all over the saga. The philosophical context hidden in the human drama becomes relatable (though quite a handful) as actual scientific terminology and logic are used as the basis for the elaborate plot supported by theoretical physicist and executive producer, Kip Thorne.

Bolstered by a bravura showing from McConaughey and is co-piloted efficiently through Hathaway’s piercing glances of a woman equally as conflicted as the father of two, the real star of the show undoubtedly belongs to Cooper’s brilliant and resourceful progeny, Murphy who is adorably introduced by Foy, tenaciously carried on in Chastain’s astounding depth and the twilight of her life comes full circle in Ellen Burstyn’s brief but loving interpretation.

If the technicality could prove disconcerting, Nolan is the man to deliver spectacular yet engrossing action just as proceedings seemed to be meandering. Whether it is a gargantuan tidal wave threatening the astronauts’ mission or Cooper pursuing a disoriented shuttle, they are never short on being awesome. ‘Gravity’ may have struck box office and Oscar gold, ‘Interstellar’ will survive the test of time as a worthier companion to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (pay attention for those references). Whatever can happen, will happen.

Rating
Entirety: A
Acting: A
Plot: A-

Rated PG-13 for some intense perilous action and brief strong language