A journey across the galaxy to save humanity

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2016)

Set in a future where crop species are going extinct one after another former test pilot Joseph Cooper is now a farmer growing corn. His daughter Murphey thinks there is a ghost in her room; Cooper doesn't believe in ghosts but accepts that something is there when the dust on the floor is a set of coordinates in binary form. He goes to that location and finds himself at a NASA base where he learns of a secret programme to find another habitable world involving a wormhole discovered near Saturn. He is asked to take part in a mission to find the best planet out of three orbiting a black hole; each of which has a scientist who went on a one way mission sending data back. The plan is to find a world to transfer humanity to but if that is impossible there is a back-up plan for the crew to raise the 5000 embryos stored aboard their ship. Time is an issue as it moves at a different rate near the black hole; this means that as hours pass for Cooper years are passing back on Earth.
This film starts at a gentle pace gradually explaining what has happened to the Earth before getting the mission to save the world started; this means the separation of Cooper and Murphey is more emotional. Once the mission is underway there is plenty of tension, including some particularly gripping moments on the second planet they visit. The small cast does a fine job; especially Matthew McConaughey, who plays Cooper; Anne Hathaway, who plays Amelia Brand a scientist aboard the mission; and Mackenzie Foy and Jessica Chastain, who play the younger and older Murphey. The effects looked great, as one would expect in a film from Christopher Nolan, and I was pleased that space was depicted as silent; something that is both scientifically correct but also more impressive. Things do get a little confusing near the end but in a way that made me want to watch again rather than causing frustration.
Overall I'd recommend this to somebody looking for intelligent science fiction in the mould of '2001 – A Space Odyssey' although this has more emotion to it than that classic.