Bold, brainy and beautiful.

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2014)

With a resume including Inception, The Prestige and The Dark Knight trilogy, base expectations for each new Christopher Nolan film are unsurprisingly high. With the promise of intergalactic exploration and time-and-space-bending action, expectations for the Interstellar are even higher. Alas, Nolan proves he's human after all with a movie that is merely great, rather than his usual standard of phenomenal. There is no doubting his ambition or limitless scope though, with a powerful father-daughter story spanning multiple galaxies, dimensions and time periods. The affecting yarn at its heart is paired with a sci-fi narrative that is deep and intelligent, but occasionally hard to swallow, particularly in the final act. That it's such an effective emotional ride can also be put down to the tour de force performance by Matthew McConaughey; his devoted father who leads the interstellar mission is inspiring, flawed, genuine and eminently watchable. Sitting shotgun in the spaceship, Anne Hathaway is solid, if not spectacular, as a focused and brash astronaut, whilst back on earth Jessica Chastain is superb as a world-class scientist and 13 year old Mackenzie Foy is gripping as McConaughey's plucky daughter. Unfortunately the supremely talented Casey Affleck is not given enough to do and the surprise arrival of an A-lister halfway through feels completely out of synch and, shockingly for Nolan, could even be considered as stunt casting. There's not much to write about the breathtaking visual splendour on offer, as words wouldn't be able to do it justice. Suffice to say Nolan has outdone himself when it comes to his eye for presentation, his employment of 70mm IMAX cameras amplifying the beauty and terror of outer space. Often awe-inspiring and enthralling – but with the odd slow patch and narrative flaw across a bum-numbing 167 minutes – Interstellar is bold, brainy and beautiful, yet not the modern masterpiece that it could have been.