Review: INTERSTELLAR Is an Awe-Inspiring, Thrilling Experience
I'm not really sure how to wrap my brain around Interstellar. It's going to take multiple viewings to be able to take in everything that director Christopher Nolan was trying to say and accomplish. That's not to say that I didn't like the movie, because I did, I absolutely loved it! It was an insanely mind-melting moviegoing experience that has been resonating with me since I saw it. I seriously just can't stop thinking about it. This is a movie that you have to experience for yourself to truly understand the pure awesomeness of it.
The emotions that I felt while watching Interstellar were overwhelming. I was going through a mixture of everything that a person can feel, and I was completely entranced from beginning to end. This is the reason why I enjoy go to the movies. Stories like this transport us to a place that we can only go in our imaginations and bring those worlds to life for us. When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of NASA. I loved the idea of being an astronaut. We actually built a very cool cockpit of the space shuttle in our classroom one year, and I spent hours and hours in that thing imagining myself traveling to edge of the universe. That passion I had for space was reinvigorated in college when I took a couple of astronomy courses. That's were I really learned about the epic vastness of the universe. I'm completely fascinated by the universe, how it works, and how it just seems endless. There's still so much that we don't know, and it's mind-blowing.
As I sat and watched Interstellar, those memories and feelings from childhood and college came flooding back to me. Watching a feature like this seems like the closest that I'll ever get to knowing what it might be like to be involved with space exploration. It was an absolutely thrilling experience, and it's one that makes you contemplate the wonders of life.
One of my favorite movies is Stanley Kubrick's to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film took me to a place that I never thought I'd go. Kubrick pushed the boundaries of storytelling and filmmaking with that movie, and Nolan came along and accelerated things even further with Interstellar. It transported me to a place that I've never been in any film, and the themes that it explored included things that we can all relate to: love, hope, family, friends, and humanity. They all played a major role in the story that was told.
Once the characters have been built up, and once you're emotionally invested in them, the audience is thrust into a whirlwind of extreme insanity. The movie is nearly three hours long, but it doesn't feel like it. I was literally on the edge of my seat almost the whole time. I had to sit back every once in awhile to take a deep breath. There were moments that my face went numb, and maybe that was the effect of forgetting to breath during certain parts of the movie.
The amount of information that has been released for this film in the trailers and other promotional materials barely scratch the surface of what it entails. I don't want to break that by throwing out a bunch of crazy plot points, spoilers, and scene descriptions. The story basically follows a widowed engineer, pilot, and corn farmer named Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, who is trying to survive in a dying world with his father-in-law (John Lithgow) and two kids. Through a series of events Cooper is led to NASA, where he meets a team of explorers and scientists who have found a wormhole in the universe that could lead them to a world that could inhabit life. Cooper is then recruited to embark on a voyage through that wormhole, which transcends the normal limits of space travel. So, to help save his family and the world, he signs on for the job to find a new habitable planet in another galaxy. The ship rockets out into the unknown with a four person crew that also includes Anne Hathaway as Amelia Brand, Wes Bentley as Doyle, and David Gyasi as Romilly. They also have a robot named TARS on board who provides some light comic relief. While they are out visiting new worlds, time is passing by on Earth and Cooper's daughter Murph, played by Jessica Chastain, is all grown up and trying to assist in the efforts of solving a problem that needs to be figured out before Cooper and his team return home.That's as much as I'll give you. There is so much more to tell, but the experience of it will be much more satisfying than having me tell you about it.
The visuals in the movie are stunning. The sci-fi aspect of the film had this really cool, slick and stylish look to it, but it was also very gritty and hard. Nolan definitely wanted to get the details right for this movie, so he used dirt, dust, and debris to his advantage. It was these little details that gave the world he created more realism. I'm a big fan of filmmakers who take the time to make things look they way they are supposed to. There are also several visual action-type sequences in the film that are absolutely breathtaking. This is one of those movies where I didn't want to blink, I wanted to jump in the screen for a closer look. Especially with those beautiful scenes that take place in space.
The acting in the film was nothing short of spectacular. I can easily see McConaughey, Hathaway, and Chastain being nominated for tons of best actor and best actress awards. In my opinion they all gave the best performances of their careers here. You'll be astonished by what you see them do on screen for this film. As great as they all were, Hathaway's performance really stuck out for me. Maybe it's because I've never seen her go to this level as an actress until now.
I obviously have a ton of great things to say about the movie, but I do have one complaint… the sound. This movie was freakin' loud! It wasn't just in the theater I was in either. I heard from several other screenings about how loud the movie was. There were points where it worked, but then there were other parts where it was so over-the-top that it was distracting, and points where you couldn't really hear what the characters were saying. Nolan really needs to learn to tone down the sound. The same thing happened with The Dark Knight Rises. That's my only complaint though! Everything else flowed together very nicely.
Interstellar is an awe-inspiring movie. I'm so happy that Nolan was inspired to make, and that the studio let him tell the story his way. Like any film, Interstellar isn't for everyone, but it was definitely for me. It's easily one of my favorite movies of the year, and might just end up on my list of favorite movies of all time. I will have to watch it a few more times before I make that decision.