True Mixed Bag

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2014)

Interstellar is a mixed bag, one that makes my emotions flip-flop more than a campaigning politician. On the positive side, the scifi technology, sound design, and score are all initially arresting, with the balletic space visuals and effects greying the line between reality and movie-magic. It's undeniably gorgeous and (at times) speechlessly engrossingso why I am struggling? Maybe it's because my love for the positives is only outmatched by my disdain for the negatives: the ponderous dialogue, the Shyamalan-like "what-a-twist!" moments, the bulky length, the dishonest ending. Nolan shot for the moon, got distracted by the stars, and missed his target. Interstellar follows a small band of renegade explorers (led by a nicely grounded performance by McConaughey) who, through a wormhole in space, travel to the furthest parts of the universe to find a new planet for humanity to inhabit. The plot is a science/space enthusiast's dream that combines the terror of Kubrick's 2001 and the awe Spielberg's Close Encounters, only Interstellar is more contrived or melodramatic than either. It's a fascinating study of time and the lengths we go for those we love, but the ponderous, self-aware and weepy nature of the heavily thematic discourse softens the impact, most apparently in the unbearably doe-eyed Hathaway. Every Nolan film is an event, and each is worth grappling with. They are filled with big ideas and big visuals in big worlds. If he could self-edit better, Interstellar could easily be a 5 star film that goes down in the annals of scifi movies. Unfortunately, much of the 169 minutes is too gloriously flawed to be fully recommendable.