Interstellar- a love story across space and time

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2014)

Interstellar Review(SPOILER ALERT):
Christopher Nolan's latest endeavor reaches out into the farthest corners of space, quite unlike Inception where he plummeted the depths of the human mind. The premise is the oft quoted disaster scenario; only this time it appears to be much more realistic with food running out for earth's 6 billion inhabitants and mankind seemingly destined to suffocate as the oxygen content of the atmosphere starts to dwindle. However there is a distant hope for salvation- a wormhole has been placed in the vicinity of Saturn (cue 2001: A Space Odyssey) seemingly by some "higher beings" which may provide an escape route for mankind to reach out to potentially habitable worlds. Only if we can overcome Murphy's law (whatever can happen, will happen, including whatever bad can happen). Steps in Matthew McCounaughey (Cooper) to head an expedition of 4 travellers {Dr Amelia Brand(Hathaway-who leaves behind her ageing father, Professor Brand AKA Michael Caine), Romilly(Gyasi) and Doyle(Bentley)}, accompanied by 2 magnificent robots, TARS and CASE (although constructed in the spirit of HAL, these two AI are quite the extreme opposite of HAL in every sense). Cooper's sacrifice is leaving behind his two young children{Tom(child –Timothy Chalamet, adult-Casey Affleck) and Murph(child-Mackenzie Foy, adult-Jessica Chastain)}, not knowing if he will ever make it back to them again. Crossing the wormhole leads our explorers into a system orbiting a black hole (The Gargantuan), with three potentially habitable planets named after the brave explorers who made a near-definite one-way trip to these worlds. The movie is a fantastic sequence of interstellar adventures, but does not need any "Aliens" to spoil the show (does mankind really need an external influence to destroy it, when we are experts at self destruction?).
Not wanting to spoil the rest of the movie, it suffices to say that the final act of the movie is a dizzying sequence combining human bravado, survival instincts and love into a heady mix that takes time and possibly repeated viewing to really absorb the meaning of. Suffice to say, the man who played the priest (read Man of Faith) in my erstwhile favourite science fiction movie, Contact, sees his career complete a nice circle by himself making a jump of faith, both metaphorically and literally, this time. Add to this the hauntingly beautiful music of Hans Zimmer, and a couple of "wow" moments, one of which leads to the demise of the antagonist (yes there is one), and you have the complete package. The last scenes are guaranteed to make your eyes swell up as a satisfying conclusion is reached to this grand tale. McCounaghey and Chastain play stellar roles, and this film is guaranteed for Oscar nomination in multiple categories, technical as well as acting. It also demonstrates the superiority of 2-D hand-held cameras over the current slew of 3-D digital shooting, and is possibly the last film to be shot on IMAX. As much as it might seem an action adventure fantasy, it is much more a parent-child love story than anything else, and may not appeal to all audiences, hence the fiercely divisive opinions amongst critics already. Over time, this shall be acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of 21st century filmmaking, much in the way 2001 attained its acclaim years after release.