A Flawed But Awe-Inspiring Film

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2014)

Christopher Nolan and CO have done it again: this is undoubtedly the event movie of the year. Hyped, magnificent to behold, brazen, emotional and filled with ideas. For all that though, and despite its many qualities, it is closer to The Dark Knight Rises than it is to Inception.
First, the good, and - lucky us - that means "great": McConnaughy effortlessly anchors this sprawling cosmic story and makes you care every inch of the way, without being too perfect a hero. Visually this is often a feast without being suffocating, due in no small part to a very clever camera-anchoring aesthetic which makes the space scenes both breathtaking and believable. You believe you are watching NASA footage of the future. Special mention to Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, whose characters might have come across as silly caricatures in lesser hands. Emotionally too, this is an often touching, sometimes heartbreaking film.
What really seems to strike a cord with audiences around the world, is how the film tackles the mind-bending issues of relativity and our insignificance as a species, while never losing track of its emotional core. To its credit it chooses to focus very intently on the idea that what is best for an individual and what is best for a species as a whole can be very strongly opposed.
The film harks back to 2001 and Solaris (two very different films) in some of the ideas it addresses, but manages to have more humanity than the former, and more scope than the latter. In fact, in warning us of our folly and celebrating our ingenuity in times of desperation, it manages to have its cake and eat it to. No mean feat, and all the more satisfying an experience for it.
Now, for the bad, and perhaps this takes multiple viewings to sink in: cleverly crafted as the film is, this comes more as an afterthought. If one chooses to scratch a bit beneath the surface, there are glaring plot and logic holes (one involving an obviously doomed choice of planet, the other a classic chicken/egg time travel paradox which is unfortunately central to the plot). You could look past these and even explain them away, but they could easily have been addressed, as well as one or two incredibly stupid things Nolan makes his characters say and do. Hans Zimmer's score is also at times overbearing and awkwardly loud in the mix, making one wonder what this could have been in the hands of someone like James Newton Howard or even Philip Glass.
Anyone who has read Yukinobu Hoshino's peerless "2001 Nights" manga will have already seen many of the same ideas and settings explored better elsewhere, and perhaps that is partially the point, to fan the flame of curiosity, and get people to seek such sources out. A blockbuster that can make you both alarmed and proud as a species, while making you thirst for more about quantum physics, cosmology and the possibility of space travel deserves every accolade it gets.
This is not the flawless masterpiece many would have you believe, but it touches brilliance more than once, and its rewards are immense. As an event movie, particularly in an age of dull sequels, this is so much more than we could hope for!