REVIEW: As predicted, climate change has made the Earth uninhabitable for humans and mankind must begin looking to the stars for a new home.
No, I’m not being the kind of sensationalist leftie the new US Senate will try to stamp out – this is just the plot of the new Christopher Nolan flick, a big-budget, sci-fi cerebral action flick that feels like 2001: A Space Odyssey on Red Bull.
Former fighter pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) now farms his family land – corn is the only stable crop left on the planet – until he is called upon by what is left of NASA, headed by Professor Brand (Michael Caine).
Some deus ex machina has placed a wormhole in our outer solar system, to inhabitable systems in another galaxy, and Cooper and a team that includes Brand’s daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), will use it to identify a new home for the human race.
Leaving behind his two children, Cooper finds himself at odds with his crew about the pull of his family over the sacrifice he needs to make for the greater good.
Nolan wrote the screenplay with his brother, Jonathan, filling it with some really trite dialogue, but also nice heart-string-tugging stuff that you’d imagine Michael Bay might direct with an American flag flying in the background.
A filmmaker with less success at the box office than Nolan wouldn't have been given the luxurious self-indulgence of time, but because of the billions earned by his superhero films, we get three hours of running time and lengthy debates on Einstein and relativity and singularities.
It’s a good lesson in astrophysics, even if it stretches beyond the comprehension level of some towards the end, and science geeks will appreciate the hardcore science behind the narrative, rather than bumkin lines such as "I’m reversing the polarity of the neutron flow."
This, in fact, feels like five films strapped in together, but Nolan gives each story arc enough momentum to keep you glued in your seat – as long as your bladder holds out.
Visually, the film is extraordinary, with quiet visual moments reminiscent of Gravity, peppered with big-budget effects moments from the best visual effects team money can buy, occasionally well-matched by Hans Zimmer’s score.
At times the music swells to obnoxiously loud levels.
Nolan shot this on film rather than digitally, with whole segments filmed in 70mm, for those who care about such things.
Proving his career comeback has sustained momentum, McConaughey is stellar.
