Smart, interesting, engrossing

Rating: 8/10 (13 November 2014)

Cooper is a former NASA test pilot, now farmer. Something has happened to earth and all there is now is dust. Resources are scarce, and fields compete with humans for oxygen, so they'll have to be eliminated. He's got a daughter Murphy and a son Tom. Tom is smart but since he's a boy in a Hollywood movie he's destined to be a farmer and become the bad guy later. Murphy as a girl in a Hollywood movie is destined for greatness. When Cooper and Murphy happen to run into a NASA facility he's introduced to a plan to save humanity from famine.
Sometime in the past, NASA sent several ships through a wormhole to find livable planets. They want him now to run a mission to find out which one of these missions was successful. He agrees, Murphy is angry and doesn't want him to leave and Tom, well, he's a boy, so the movie doesn't care about him.
So off he goes with a team of 3 others and some robots. Their challenge is time. They can't waste any because as they are traveling through worm holes at high speeds, years are going by on earth and people are dying. They arrive at the first planet which is nothing but water. There, some girl astronaut who looks like Michael Jackson screws up and gets a teammate killed and wastes precious time. The waves on this planet are gigantic and they are in danger. They escape.
Years have gone by on earth. They land on the second planet that is nothing buy ice. They wake up the astronaut there who promises them that there is livable space somewhere underneath. But he has a sinister agenda.
Meanwhile we learn that the plan by NASA was somewhat doomed from the get-go, that no one thought this team would make it back to earth. That forces Cooper and the girl to try and solve things on their own. And he's got some help from earth. Murphy herself is now a NASA scientist. And since she was little she has had contact with a "ghost"--some force that tinkered with gravity to give her messages. She, with the ghost, and Cooper racing at the speed of light, will have to figure out a way to save themselves and earthlings.
Interstellar had the worst preview of any movie in recent times. After seeing it several times, I had no intention of watching the movie. But to my surprise Interstellar is actually good. Very good. The visuals aren't that compelling though I must say. Sure, it has some neat scenes, but overall for a space movie, this doesn't take advantage of it. We are not treated to cool sights of nebulas and galaxies. It's a smart movie though that doesn't scare away from the physics, but jumps right into it--relativity, worm holes, speed of light, gravity, string theory, multiple dimensions all make an appearance and are handled well. The physics aren't completely accurate nor is the movie plot-hole free, but it's not as obvious or annoying as in other movies.
Despite featuring McConaughey in the lead, it is an engrossing movie that gets you involved for the nearly 3 hours. If properly directed in a "normal" role, he can actually deliver. Still, 30-45 minutes could have been easily edited out. It makes you think as well, which is a rarity in Hollywood movies. It doesn't dumb things down. The mandatory scene of someone telling a scientist to "speak English" is thankfully absent, truly revolutionary! There are even some philosophically meaningful lines. While I don't appreciate the anti-male aspects, at least it does place a lot of emphasis on family, on parenting, which is sorely needed in Western developed countries that are basically going to go extinct because successful, high-functioning people can't figure out a way to make long-term meaningful relationships work. And that is the even more revolutionary theme of Interstellar. It goes against the Hollywood agenda to destroy the family and to advocate for no-strings-attached, no drama, transactional relationships. Instead it places importance on family in this life, and maybe beyond.