definitely see this one

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2014)

Likely judgment by history will see it as a "near miss" rather than a "masterpiece" ...but so what: easily one of the best movies of this current season.
The physicist was actually involved in the project _before_ any of the movie people. So you needn't worry about accuracy. Some of the physics though is quite speculative - for example who knows what the edge of a black hole's event horizon really looks like. There are no obvious whoppers (although if you think hard enough about it later, there are just a few things that don't quite seem to add up).
To humanize the story -so it's not just a physics lesson- there are themes of i) romantic love, ii) parent<->child love, and iii) humanity always actively pushing the boundaries rather than ever passively accepting anything. None of the themes are presented in an overwhelming way -this is not a "message movie"- ...but they're definitely there.
I saw lots of similarities to "2001: A Space Odyssey": unseen superbeings, scenes that make little sense on the first viewing, scenes that are downright mystical, and bits of special effects that are as much "light show" as "movie".
There are a lot of different things crammed into one movie: a positive description may be something like "sprawling", and a negative description of the same thing may be something like "undigestible mass".
The director is very interested in picture quality, and has arranged a bewildering array of distribution formats so every theater can show it in whatever way is best for itself. There are so many different formats, advertising of particular formats is rare (probably because theaters are afraid of all the confusion), and so it's not always easy to find out which format a particular theater is showing. My recommendations are either the "real IMAX" format or the "4K digital" format. "Real IMAX" uses the old giant film, and is most likely found in the older IMAX theaters often attached to some sort of Museum of Science (_not_ the same as the "IMAX-lite" found in many multiplexes). The "4K digital" format is common either in theaters that were converted to digital only in the big push a couple years ago, or in theaters that have enough money to constantly upgrade their projection equipment. Most likely theaters capable of showing the "4K digital" format have either been displaying "4K digital" on their splash screen before every movie for months, or have a plaque that says "4K digital" on the wall by the theater entrance. And no question, if the theater can play it, they will almost certainly have it. ("IMAX-lite" theaters may put on a really good show too - I simply don't know.) There's quite a bit of explication, some on the more esoteric aspects of the physics and some to set up plot points. However the explication is notably brief. In fact sometimes a single sentence will appear to be just a throw-away for atmosphere, but will turn out to explain a scene that happens an hour or two later.
Be prepared to settle in, as this film is almost three hours long. That allows it to have lots of little climaxes, rather than the typical movie structure of just a couple big ones. Sometimes I was glued to the screen for tens of minutes, while other times a bathroom break seemed like a good idea. And it kept flipping back and forth. The freedom from a rigid typical structure also means the film has a separate ending for each subplot, rather than trying to tie up all the loose ends all at once.
For some people when it's over it's over. But many will find it flickering back to life in their thoughts hours later.
The special effects use CGI only occasionally (but spectacularly); many of the special effects were done some other way. There were lots of unusual camera setups, special photography, sets, and models (informally called "maxatures" rather than "miniatures" because they were so big - for example the space station model was 23 feet across). Having seen plenty of real NASA footage on TV in my youth, it was too easy for me to write off the weightlessness and space travel effects as "of course it looks like that". In fact the effects are astounding - for example I've never seen a realistic portrayal before of space travelers transitioning from weightlessness to standing as the circular space station spins up.
You won't see it in any credits or any advertising, but one of the characters is played by Matt Damon. This is described as a "cameo", which I find rather silly; the part involves more complex characterization and more screen time than some of the credited characters, which is not my conception of a "cameo". Fortunately it only matters to movie freaks anyway.