Directed by Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight Rises”) and co-written with his brother Jonathan, “Interstellar” is a monumental body of work; a tour de force that projects a dismal future for mankind where the heartland of America (which today could produce nearly 50 percent of all the wheat, corn and soy the world can consume) is instead a massive dust bowl.
Millions are dying of starvation around the world and food has become the sparsest of commodities that even the Indian Government is sending remote drones over Kansas to find the last of the corn crops.
Enter Cooper (McConaughey), a former NASA pilot and engineer whose wife has died of a brain cyst and is managing two young children on his family farm, who is called upon to pilot one last space venture into a newly (and conveniently) discovered wormhole near Saturn that will “fold space,” allowing for near instantaneous travel from our solar system to the far reaches of the galaxy. With the resources of planet Earth exhausted, NASA, now an underground and unfunded private organization, throws together what scientific resources are still available to send Cooper and a four member crew (including Nolanite Anne Hathaway from “The Dark Knight Rises”) into the unknown. With the US Government rewriting history that the lunar landings were a PR stunt that never happened, it has fallen upon these intrepid explorers to take on this suicide mission.
More than half the film is used to set up the premise of Cooper et al’s space journey and frankly, it’s a mess. Soapy scenes with his children will have you squirming in your seat and looking for the exit. How many “will you come back” and “when will you come back” can you stomach … cries that are no different than one of my twins asking from the car seat “are we there yet”?
Nether are the best selection to replace sunny San Diego.
We are given a lot of rules to remember in “Interstellar.” Rules about gravity. Rules about how space and time interact. So many rules. Nolan instead throws them all out in the third and final act of “Interstellar,” asking the audience to “just kinda go along with it.” Imagine zooming through a black hole and thinking you will survive is one stupid plot hole the audience is asked to believe. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Beautiful yes, nearly on the scale of “2001: A Space Odyssey” but stupid to think any nuts and bolts that were riveted on by minimum wage workers in Tennessee would be able to survive entering a black hole.
Like Nolan’s “Inception,” the ending of “Interstellar,” majestic and breathtaking as it is, is sure to create its divisive commentary among those who watch it and the brothers Nolan wrote it that way. Are there any aliens in “Interstellar”? If you mean multi-armed, acid-dripping monsters with ray guns… ahhh no. But everything outside of Earth would be alien to you and me. When exterior vistas are presented, you will be awed at the sheer silence of space. There are no space battles with rebel spaces ships whooshing by to a grand musical fanfare.
Only silence.
“Interstellar,” once you get off terra firma and can suspend your belief about wormholes and black holes, is a fun ride and McConaughey, 44, continues to master his craft, quickly rising to the level of
Hollywood’s greatest actors including David Niven and Gregory Peck.
The grandness of the Universe awaits humanity… if it collectively is ready to explore its wonders.
Come aboard “Interstellar” for a sneak peak of it all!
Questions, comments or travel suggestions, write me at theruffolos@readingruffolos.com