"Interstellar" opens up the imagination and this intricate story lingers in your mind long after the movie ends.

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2014)

For days my thoughts were of family, sacrifice and love while I digested the ideas presented in the film. Brothers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan have written another tangled story that slowly unravels as a great cast of characters experience this heart pounding adventure. The Nolan brothers brought us "Inception" and "Momento" two stories that weren't told in a traditional linear way. "Interstellar" continues their challenging story telling convention in this fantastic space voyage.
The story takes place in the not so distant future, climate change has ravaged the earth. Farming is an assigned career to almost everyone on the planet. Good farmers are the most important commodity the earth has, food is scarce and finding soil that will yield an abundant crop is difficult. There is a sense of desperation on earth as we are introduced to Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) on his family farm. Cooper, once a pilot for N.A.S.A. is now farming while the planet suffers from a major food crisis. The government is focused on keeping the human race alive, frightened taxpayers refuse to foot the bill for anything that doesn't keep them from starving. Working on Cooper's farm is his father in law Donald (John Lithgow), his 15-year-old son Tom (Timothée Chalamet), and his 10-year-old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) as they struggle with the day-to-day challenges farming on earth now presents.
Cooper and Donald have teamed up to create one of the most successful farms on earth. They continually supply corn ever year to the struggling human race and raise Cooper's son Tom to do the same. Cooper's scientific eagerness helped him achieve a high success rate when it came to growing corn but his heart was never really into farming. He longs for something more, he never stops his pursuit of engineering and manages to pass on his thirst for discovery to his daughter who seems to have inherited her fathers passions. Murph is a bright young girl that constantly embarrasses her teachers because she isn't being challenged enough academically. Murph is convinced there's a Ghost in her room and says it's been there for years. Copper encourages her to be scientific about her observations if she truly believes something unexplainable is happening. She writes down her observations and keeps track of every mysterious event that happens in her farmhouse room.
Dust storms chase everybody into shelters almost daily, people can't breath and it's beginning to take its toll. After Copper and his family race inside during one of these storms Murph realizes she left her room window open and runs upstairs. Cooper races up after her and when they enter the room a mysterious dust cloud falls on the floor in a very distinct way. Cooper sits beside the phenomenon and begins to realize Murph was observing something curious. He realizes that the gravity in her room has been altered somehow, some of the dust falls slower than the rest. Copper begins to decipher the code hidden in the pattern. He realizes the message in the dirt contains some geographic coordinates, so he figures out where on earth they are pointing and decides to investigate.
A brilliant physicist named Professor Brand (Michael Caine) recognizes the former pilot and questions him about how he found their underground installation. After hearing Coopers explanation of what led him there, Professor Brand decides to explain everything to him. The Professor puts his trust in Cooper and reveals the secret that N.A.S.A. still exists and there is a plan to save humanity.
Brand tells Cooper about a wormhole that appeared a few years ago just beyond Saturn. He explains that N.A.S.A. sent 12 astronauts out through it to visit 12 possible planets humanity could survive on. These brave men and women knew they might be on a one way trip and were told to send out a beacon only if the planet they landed on had the appropriate attributes. N.A.S.A.'s resources are limited, they can't visit all 12 planets so an accurate account of each was necessary. Professor Brand asks Cooper to pilot the rocket they've almost completed through the wormhole to retrieve the information from the 12 astronauts. His mission, if he accepts it, is to find the astronaut with the best planet.
As Cooper raises through space and time to save humanity all he can think about is his family. The mission he's on requires him to visit planets where time is experienced differently at a different rate than earth. His crew must calculate the time displacements based on the wormhole's proximity to the worlds they visit. While visiting the planets time is normal to them but years go flying by on Earth. Upon returning from one of the planets, video arrives from earth and Cooper is able to see his how time has affected his families lives.
Cooper's epic adventure teaches him that time and space are interconnected, he begins to understand the universe in a way no other human as ever experienced. The story can be confusing at times and gives the audience a lot to digest. The story comes full circle with a good payoff at the end. I enjoyed the unexpected twists and turns throughout this 169 minute epic. I never stopped processing the many layers this story presents. I really felt the love Copper has for his family and his strong desire to see them again. The sadness Murph felt not having her dad around really affected her life and made her thirsty for the truth. Their connection inspires them both to be the best and brightest they can be as the fate of planet earth hangs in the balance.
I can't wait for the next Nolan Brothers presentation because this one was simply amazing. I look forward to watching this movie again to see what clues I missed the first time around.