Despite great visuals, Nolan's adolescent reverie features a bloated screenplay with too much exposition and 'science-speak'

Rating: 5/10 (13 December 2014)

Let's face it—when it comes to visuals, Christopher Nolan is up there with some of the best directors today (Spielberg, Cameron, etc.). But when it comes to writing, why can't Christopher and his screen writing brother, Jonathan, hire some professional writers to hash out their ideas and sculpt them into a professional screenplay? It's through their insistence on doing all the work themselves, that we end up with the bloated 'Interstellar'.
It becomes apparent in the first act just how amateurish the Nolan brothers really are. They posit a future world where climate conditions have turned earth into a virtual dust bowl, on the brink of extinction. Enter Cooper, widowed former astronaut who must save earth from destruction. It's imperative that Cooper get to his space journey in Act Two as quickly as possible, so we can find out what the solution to earth's conundrum is in a reasonable amount of time. But no, the Nolan's insist on dragging things out so that Act I is all interminable exposition.
We're introduced to Cooper's family who go on a long-winded drive through a corn field with a flat tire, chasing a mysterious drone. Later, Cooper's 10 year old daughter, Murphy, discovers a 'ghost' in the dust, which turns out to be a coded message from benign aliens who seek to rescue mankind from their big problem on earth (why the aliens are so helpful is never explained but it's rather convenient that stricken earth has someone in their corner!).
Cooper and Murphy are led to the secret NASA installation where we're treated to tortured explanations about binary codes, a wormhole which might lead to three different planets on the other side, possibly hospitable to earth colonists, and a very Twilight Zone-like "gravitational time dilation", where one hour on the surface of one of the planets that's too close to the wormhole, equals 7 earth years. Throughout the film, it's much more 'tell' than 'show' as the Nolan's insist on explaining all the science behind what's happening, undoubtedly provided mostly by the film's consultant, theoretical physicist Kip Thorne.
I was squirming in my seat since it took so long to get to the meat and potatoes of the story: whether Cooper and his crew find out if any of the three planets prove hospitable for earth colonization. Indeed, Act 2 features what Nolan is good at: action scenes featuring some fantastic visuals. On the first planet, prepare yourself as Cooper and crew battle a giant tsunami and later on Planet 2 when Matt Damon, as Mann, a villainous astronaut, attempts to kill Cooper by smashing his visor and then hijacks a shuttle craft and unsuccessfully attempts to dock with the mother ship.
Unfortunately, 'Interstellar' features a hokey climax where a now grown Murphy must figure out how NASA space ships can be launched via gravity. Initially, she's despondent when the leader of the NASA project, Brand (Michael Cane), admits that his equation to launch the space ships was bogus. But somehow (and don't ask me how), if Murphy is able to glean additional data from the black hole's 'singularity', she can solve the equation. Enter Cooper who has left (love interest) Amelia, his good-looking co-astronaut, to touch down on the third planet, while he somehow tries to figure out how to communicate with the aliens, so he can send Murphy the crucial data.
Again, but don't me ask how, despite the fact that Cooper is out of fuel in his shuttle and finds himself floating in space, he ends up in an extra-dimensional spatial dimension where he's able to communicate with Murphy by sending Morse Code through a watch she had as a child. Cooper is assisted by his robot, TARS, who awkwardly resembles a triple-hinged Gumby. Man and robot successfully communicate with Murphy who is now able to save earth by completing Brand's equation.
Nolan's message, however, has nothing to do with the fictional salvation of humanity. Quite the contrary, it's all about 'family'. Cooper's promise to meet up with Murphy after his journey, is fulfilled. The problem is, due to that gravitational time dilation, Murphy is an old woman, now on her deathbed. Cooper and daughter still get to bond and she smartly tells Cooper to join Amelia on the third planet, where presumably they can live happily ever after.
'Interstellar' shines only when Nolan pulls out all the stops with his fantastic visuals. Story wise, a narrative replete with benign aliens and wormholes, is straight out of the original Star Trek play-book. Nolan doesn't help things with all the science-speak, that slows the action down considerably. With judicious editing, 'Interstellar' could have been a better picture but the premise behind it all, is unfortunately that some may term, a 'reverie of adolescence'.