A Truly Mesmerising Sc-Fi Film of 2014

Rating: 10/10 (9 November 2014)

When the name Christopher Nolan comes to mind, we think of Memento. The Prestige, Inception and the Dark Knight Trilogy as films that changed, challenged and kept audiences in awe of what each of those films bring. But his latest offering is indeed not only up there with the best sci-fi themed films such as Inception, Gravity and 2001: A Space Odyssey (as it plays an inspiration for Interstellar along with other acclaimed science fiction classics) but one of the best and original pieces of film made this year.
I'll try not to give too much away but the story is centered on a not too distant future where the Earth has become unsustainable for the human population; dust storms scour the land and mankind itself has reverted to crop farming for food but with little luck to boot. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is widowed and once was a NASA test pilot and engineer but resides now as a crop farmer alongside his teenage son Tom, younger daughter Murphy (or 'Murph' as her nickname) and father-in-law Donald. Murph believes that ghosts are trying to communicate her and they have given her coordinates of a possible location to discover, but it leads to secret NASA group lead by Professor Brand (Michael Cane) who theorizes that a possible wormhole discovered orbiting Saturn could lead to possible new worlds for human colonisation and asks for Cooper's help in leading the expedition along with his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) and 2 other NASA astronauts. The events that follow take off will lead to an adventure like no other that's visually spectacular, emotional and engaging.
As said, Nolan has topped this works with this marvelous gem. Being based by theoretical physicist Kip Thorne's work, Nolan gives us the scenario of human life in another universe and taking 4 years to write the most realistic script alongside his brother Jonathan, the final result was indeed different to what I and others were expecting. The direction as always is spot on as already seen in his last films; he takes story seriously, pace is steady but never broken and characters are never wasted in his vision. The amount of time that was taken to be convinced on screen was a long journey for Nolan and his crew through financing, development, writing etc but the end result was indeed captivating and a step up in terms of science fiction in film.
The casting and performances are all fantastic; these include Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine and Jessica Chastain and a surprising appearance of another one (but I won't be revealing this).The supporting talents of Wes Bentley, Topher Grace, John Lithgow, Casey Affleck and the voices of Bill Irwin and Josh Stewart are all . McConaughey in particular has amped up his acting roles since his role in The Lincoln Lawyer and only this year won best actor for Dallas Buyers Club, he gives not only a realistic depiction of man losing not only his reason for existence but yet redeem it all for the sake of mankind, but he conveys emotion, hope and yet convincing enough to be the film's hero. Hathaway similarly does this as well with excellence and has driven herself to be involved in captivating films since Les Miserables, expanding her acting range. The topping performance of all (in my opinion ) was Jessica Chastain, since seeing Zero Dark Thirty she can be incredible in drama driven roles and breathing life into her characters so I'm betting she will get Oscar attention alongside McConaughey and Hathaway.
Music here is incredibly captivating and who else to deliver this is award winning and highly acclaimed composer Hans Zimmer (a favorite of mine to listen to). To describe Intersellar's score, Zimmer says that "The textures, the music, and the sounds, and the thing we sort of created has sort of seeped into other people's movies a bit, so it's time to reinvent. The endless string (ostinatos) need to go by the wayside, the big drums are probably in the bin" and like '2001' the music is beautiful and plays a role in the story's emotion. Visual effects here are becoming more CGI than practical but Nolan highly prefers the practical magic and minor CGI to bring the realistic effect. The use of miniature effects, built and designed sets and production are all in for Oscar worthy attention, and this was possible because of visual effects team Double Negative.
Overall, Interstellar is a captivating, engaging and emotional film release of the year and only a year after 'Gravity' had changed the mold on science fiction, but Interstellar adds more with its concept, cast, music and atmosphere that creates a beautiful journey to the unknown that will indeed earn Oscars wins in the next awards season.