2014: A Space Odyssey
Film: Interstellar
Cast: Mathew McConaughey, Anen Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Duration: 2 hr 49
mins
Rating: * * * * 1 /2
Few directors make exciting films in Hollywood like
Christopher Nolan does. Right from his debut, the low budget Following (1998) to the Batman
blockbusters and mind benders like Inception
Nolan’s films have been a cut above the rest. He has always been pushing the
boundaries and with Interstellar, he
has pushed it even further.
This film is likely to down in history as one of the best
science fiction films ever made along with the likes of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space
Odyssey. It is hard to ignore the influence of that Kubrick classic in terms
of scale and opulence.
Moreover, Interstellar is not a science fiction fantasy, it is science fiction and as good as it
gets on the silver screen. Some might complain that there is a too much of it
to comprehend but then we’d rather have it that way than have a diluted film.
The film opens in an unspecified time in the future- it
could be half a century later or more, we don’t know. We know that all is not
well and the whole of earth is in turmoil. Famine has struck, there are blights
on crops, food has become scarce and what are mostly left are corn fields. A
former NASA astronaut Cooper (Mathew McConaughey) has also taken up to farming
because NASA has been shut down. He lives with his teenage son Tom, daughter
(Murphy) and father in law (John Lithgow).
In what appeared to be a nod to Hitchcock, he even chases a low flying
drone (Indian made) through the corn fields.
After a chain of interesting events he discovers that NASA
is still alive and kicking albeit they are functioning secretly. Prof. Brand
(Michael Caine) Cooper’s ex-colleague is in-charge and since mankind is on the
verge of extinction they have a couple of plans. Plan A is to pack up as many
humans as possible and send them to a colony in space and if that fails, the
option is to use frozen embryos to start afresh on another planet or maybe
galaxy.
Copper embarks on a journey along with Prof. Brands daughter
Amelia (Anne Hathaway) and couple of other colleagues and a smart Alec robot
called TARS. The journey is long and arduous; they have to go to a worm hole
near Saturn which will take them to the ‘other side’. About a decade ago, other
astronauts were sent in search of inhabitable places but their fate is unknown.
It is not only about the science and the expedition. There
are a lot of personal equations involved. Cooper may or may not come back to earth
but he has a choice of either staying back with his kids or make an attempt to
save mankind. His daughter Murphy (Jessica Chastain) always holds a grouse
against him for making the latter choice.
At an early stage, the plot involves the concept of ‘ghosts’ which is
very cleverly resolved at the end.
There are some fascinating science concepts involved as well
– The Tesseract is far more complex than the plain vanilla we have seen in the
Avengers. The Bootstrap paradox (named after Robert Heinlein’s short story) also
is ingeniously used and in the gripping finale even after paying undivided
attention, it is likely that everything may not be clear.
While Nolan’s attention to the details and visuals is
incredible the music by Hans Zimmer adds its own dimension to the overall
experience. Zimmer has not used much of string instruments yet it a grand feel
to it.
Of the cast, the supporting cast of Michael Caineis reliable
as always. He also gets to deliver one of the most memorable lines in the film
–“I am an old Physicist, I am not afraid of death, I am afraid of time.”
Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway are rock solid. Mathew McConaughey’s seems
to be on a roll these days. First he won the Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club and
this performance is most likely to give him at least a nomination this time.
Interstellar is a one of its kind experience at the cinema
theatres. And on a side note, remember what Dylan Thomas said about not going
gently into the good night.
Published in The Navhind Times on 9th Nov 2014
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