Out of This World

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2014)

In the near future, Earth's vegetation and plant life has been hit by 'blight' – a disease, infecting the incubation of crops and various other sources of grown food. A bi-product of which conjures huge sprawling dust storms, harking back to the ecological devastation of the 1930's 'dust-bowl' – a whirlwind of dust storms , caused by the conversion of arid grassland into cultivated cropland during a decade-long drought. Unfortunately for the people of Earth, 'blight' consumes much of the free oxygen within the atmosphere, causing not only starvation from lack of food, but also eventual death by asphyxiation. In a time where technological innovation and space exploration are viewed as excessive, no longer necessary and in the case of the earlier 20th Century Apollo missions – now taught in schools as propaganda by the Russian's, complete with 'corrected' text books to support. The struggle to provide food for millions had ultimately resulted in funding cuts within various technological fields; and shockingly, even attempts at genocide - we learn the NASA of old were pressured to drop bombs onto starving people by the Federal government in order to cull the demand for food – to which they unashamedly declined and consequently lost their funding and disbanded as a result.
It is here then, that we are introduced to widower; Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his family – daughter Murph, played by the young Mackenzie Foy, son Tom (Timothée Chalamet); and grandpa Donald (John Lithgow) - a seemingly dysfunctional but loving, if not slightly clichéd family, living together in a small farmhouse in middle- America. Cooper who is struggling to sleep at night, re-living his nightmarish crash whilst piloting one of the film's iconic 'Ranger' shuttles for the Air Force in what we presume to be pre-blight era – is now utilizing his engineering prowess to build and retrofit existing farming equipment into automated farming machines, gathering corn to feed his family – expressively unhappy with his current situation and above all, society's facile view of the world around them, with Cooper preferring a sanguine view of the human race enduring elsewhere in the vast Cosmos. His son, Tom is essentially under-performing in school – pegged as just another (much needed) farmer by his tutor, to which is counteracted by Daughter; Murph whose intelligence defies her age (10), often outshining her peers and tutors themselves, and who is infatuated with theories of science, and what she claims is a ghost or poltergeist trying to communicate with her through seemingly unexplained phenomena – a series of gravitational anomalies involving her book case and settling dust – that initially is refuted by her father, Cooper as nonsense. It is only when Cooper witnesses this himself; he begins to investigate, and determines that the aforementioned settling dust is being manipulated by gravity and represents a pattern of binary code thus leading him to investigate co-ordinates signified by the mysterious binary 'message'.
The heart of Interstellar is its relationships – whether that be between Cooper and his daughter, Murph; the relationship between Doctor Brand (Anne Hathaway) and her father (Michael Caine), or the love that comes to light mid-mission that would transcend space and time – literally. Love prevails above all, including rational thought, even in the most impossible situations. This in itself is not only central to the story, but also the emotional anchor that connects us as the audience to the characters, their situation and the impossible decisions they are forced to make on their mission. There is a particular moment, as the team arrives at their first destination after passing through the wormhole where a lapse in judgement by the group costs them not only the life of a team-mate but also a substantial part of themselves and their own lives. It's a moment where we, as the audience can relate; and immediately feel the profound impact and repercussions of the characters sudden reality – something that Chris Nolan and co-writer Jonathan Nolan excels at here.
It is when the team arrive at their second location (Dr Mann's planet) that do we truly understand the darker side of the human connection – here we witness deceit, lies and betrayal as certain aspects of the mission come to light as 'hopeless' and begin to unravel at a spectacular rate – both back on Earth and concurrently. Truly a curved ball to the narrative lies a 'Superstar' cameo with devastating consequences – Doctor Mann (one of the original twelve individuals from the earlier Lazarus missions), and the brilliant mind behind the Lazarus project itself proves that desperation and solitude can have a profound effect on integrity and judgement - survival instinct is cause for self-preservation and to push harder to endure indeed.
The final act and actions of Cooper and Brand are in many ways, born out of pure desperation and lack of any other viable options, but also forged from fulfilling a certain destiny – a brutal, spectacular and ultimately enlightening perspective on the relevance of black holes and quantum theory provide a thought provocative and ballsy conclusion to the conundrum of gravity in the fifth-dimension – remember Murph's ghost? Fans of Nolan's previous mind-bending effort; Inception will revel in this.
Interstellar then is Sci-Fi at its best, providing a thought- provocative narrative that continues long after the credits roll. The audience's individual perception of the ideas and concepts presented therein will ultimately polarise the audience and divide opinion. This ultimately boils down to your take on where the science fact ends, and imagination takes over. I'm firmly of the opinion that this film is ultimately a journey of entertainment and wonder – it's not a documentary or even an educational piece - it doesn't even try to be. Interstellar will certainly widen your perspective and opinion, but it will also take you on a journey you likely have never experienced before. Is that not what film is all about?
Full, un-edited review available to read online at: https://carlpinnick.journoportfolio.com