INTERSTELLAR (2014 - SCI-FI/DRAMA/ACTION/MYSTERY) *** out of ***** OR 6 out of 10
(Are you kidding me, Christopher?)
CAST: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Mackenzie Foy, William Devane, Casey Affleck, Timothee Chalamet, and a Surprise Guest A-List Actor Playing A Role You Wouldn't Expect Him To Play Which Is Why It's A Surprise
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
(WARNING: Some SPOILERS and reasons to worry that Christopher Nolan is going down the way of M. Night Shyamalan - straight ahead...)
IT'S LIKE THIS: Wow. Out of all the 594 movies we've reviewed so far (well, 645 if you also count the 51 Gialli we reviewed last Autumn in our Giallo Restrospective), the hardest one for me to rate is our next review, the much-anticipated INTERSTELLAR, Christopher Nolan's first film, post-THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Given that we loved the Dark Knight films and Nolan's last non-Batman film, 2010's INCEPTION, we were psyched to see his next one. Hell, it even has the same one-word title that starts with the letter "I".
Well, color us deflated, post-screening. The first sign that I knew this flick wasn't going to be anywhere near INCEPTION of any of Nolan's Batman films was the fact that I was sighing with impatience and rolling my eyes before the first half-hour was even up. I kept checking my phone (to the annoyance of the family sitting behind us) to see if this movie hadn't been directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the director who never met a corny trope he didn't want to pick clean. Nope, the Internet continued to report that my hero Christopher Nolan had allegedly directed this... schmaltz-fest.
Ugh.
We'll discuss why INTERSTELLAR semi-blows in the BUT SERIOUSLY section of our review. For now, just know that the movie starts in the not-too-distant future, in what looks like a dustier, grimier version of rural Texas (if that's possible). Our hero is Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former engineer who now works as a farmer - unwillingly. You see, in Coop's era, the planet has started to dry up, with dust storms increasingly frequent, and rain increasingly infrequent. Crop after crop begins to fail. First wheat, then Okra, and soon the leaders of the world believe corn will be next. Presumably, marijuana is doing okay because Coop shambles around with heavy-lidded eyes. Oh, my bad... that's just how Matthew McConaughey looks all the time. Hmmmmmmmmmm....
Anyway, the world has no use for engineers or anything fluffy like that because of the rising food shortage. They need farmers, goddamnit. And like it or not, Coop is gonna have to farm to ensure his family survives. They consist of willful daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), mellow son Tom (Timothee Chalamet), and crusty father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow). Coop misses working for NASA as an engineer, but since NASA was shut down so that the government could fund, well, farming he's shit out of luck. Pick up that hoe, Coop, and stop yer bitchin'.
Things take a turn for the weird when Coop and Murphy find out that the dust in her room has spelled out some position coordinates on her floor (please I beg of you - don't ask). Following these coordinates on their trusty map, Coop and Murph (as he calls her), discover a hidden bunker that used to be NORAD where what remains of NASA is trying build a gigantic spaceship that will take the inhabitants of Earth to... well, they're not exactly sure yet.
The leader of the scientific group (what's left of it) at NASA is some windbag named Professor Brand (Michael Caine) who is prone to reciting poetry at any given moment - usually when you ask him an important question that begs an even more important answer. Trust me, you will want to cold-cock this fucker before the halfway point of this flick. Eventually, Coop gets out of him that they discovered a wormhole near Saturn and sent a bunch of astronauts through it to scout out inhabitable planets. Now, NASA is getting ready to send out a search party to see how they did and what they found - and would Coop please be the one to lead them?
After what literally feels like two minutes, Coop agrees. All this despite the fact that he has two kids and a crusty father-in-law back home to care for. He rationalizes that if he doesn't go on the mission, it will fail. Don't be modest now, Coop. As you can imagine, Murph is supremely pissed off at her old man. He consoles her by saying: "When I come back, just think: you'll be as old as me when I left." Wait, what? That's supposed to make her feel better?
So, anyhow, Murph understandably gives him a "fuck right the hell off you asshole" look and tells him to be on this way. Coop complies, and soon he's on his way to Saturn and that bunghole, er, wormhole with three other astronauts. They are the whiny bitch Amelia (Anne Hathaway), the quiet Romilly (David Gyasi), and the, um, bearded Doyle (Wes Bentley). Oh, and there's also a terminally sarcastic robot named TARS (voice of Bill Irwin), who often says things like "I'm gonna blow you out of the airlock" or "I'm going to take off and leave your asses behind on this rock" - and you can never tell if he's joking or not. So much for technology giving them peace of mind...
What will Coop and his crew find after they pass through the wormhole? Which of the three planets they discover will be the best to host human life? What dangers are waiting for them there? And will they be endangered? And what about Murph back on Earth? Will she ever be able to forgive her father for leaving her? Will Coop's sacrifice be worth it? Will Amelia ever grow a brain? Will Doyle ever shave that beard? Is Professor Brand actually... a ghost who's been dead all this time?
Oh, wait... that was a different M. Night Shyamalan movie....
BUT SERIOUSLY: Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite writer/directors. I've loved his chilly, hard-edged films since his micro-budgeted but successful first films like MEMENTO and FOLLOWING. His first big-budget Hollywood effort was INSOMNIA, a remake of the Norwegian thriller of the same title, and that was similarly cool, clinical, and precise, with just the right amount of emotional pathos.
Then, of course, Nolan dusted off the character of Batman, having been buried underneath a pile of neon lights, glitter, and nipple-adorned batsuits after Joel Schumacher foisted BATMAN & ROBIN on us in 1995. At that time, it looked like Bruce Wayne and his alter ego was done for. Nolan, however, performed a "Lazarus" on Batman - and the result was the awesome "Dark Knight" trilogy, which we firmly believe is one of the best trilogies in the annals of cinematic history.
And, then, INCEPTION came along, and even though it sounded on paper to be a questionable mash-up of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, DREAMSCAPE, and the James Bond franchise, it actually turned out to be a surreal, hypnotic, kinetic thriller that bore the familiar Nolan elements (chilly, precise action and perfectly-pitched feeling). Needless to say, INCEPTION was a modern classic just like the Dark Knight trilogy - and it was even more remarkable for being an original story without a fully-formed, formidable mythos to precede it like the Batman films.
After the Dark Knight Trilogy ended, all eyes were on Nolan for what he would do next. When he announced his next project would be called INTERSTELLAR and would star Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, anticipation began to build. The scope of INTERSTELLAR was said to be bigger than any other film Nolan had directed, and many thought it would surpass anything he had done before. Needless to say, expectations were high for this film, including ours.
In our opening, we mentioned jokingly how INTERSTELLAR is probably the most difficult film to rate, out of all the 645 films (including the 51 Gialli from last year) we've reviewed since this site went up in 2010. It is completely true. On one hand, INTERSTELLAR has moments of pure bravura wonder and awe - and a truly brilliant premise at its core. On the other, it has many truly corny moments, false emotionalism, lousy characters, clunky dialogue, and major dramatic missteps that weaken the film as a whole. It's a very hard film to like, and an impossible one to love. However, it's equally difficult to dismiss it outright.
What makes our conflicted reaction to INTERSTELLAR, given how psyched we were for it, particularly unfortunate is because we expected much better from Christopher Nolan - and for good reason. All of his films going all the way back to FOLLOWING and MEMENTO were sure-footed and well-executed on all levels: plot, character, visuals, music, etc. With INTERSTELLAR, we get his first misfire. It amazes us that some quarters are giving this film perfect ratings, considering how flawed it is. To each their own, but we know when we like a movie - and we just barely liked INTERSTELLAR. Given our devotion to Christopher Nolan, that is something surprising - and saddening.
Let me break down the things we liked and disliked about INTERSTELLAR:
LIKES:
1. Great premise. The prospect of traveling to farflung galaxies to discover habitable planets taps in naturally to the curious child in all of us. There are moments in the film where this premise pays off, giving us scenes of quiet power and awe. Indeed, its the silent, wordless scenes that convey the most impact.
2. A decent ending. The strongest part of INTERSTELLAR is its ending. After a weak beginning, a draggy mid-section, the third act at least grows stronger as it nears its denouement. Nolan is known for solid endings, and INTERSTELLAR is no exception.
3. Hans Zimmer's elegant, chilly, exciting, yet also somehow sad score. Zimmer provided the music for the Dark Knight Trilogy and INCEPTION, and here he goes a different direction, using an array of ethereal sounds like quiet strings, choral pieces, and organ music. The piece that plays over Coop and Amelia's desperate attempts to dock with the damaged runaway ship (after they leave the second planet) is simply wondrous.
4. Matthew McConaughey's strong lead performance. McConaughey recently won a Best Actor Oscar for his transformative role in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, and he proved what some of us already knew for the longest time: that here is a guy who may look like a model but has the complex heart of a character actor. In short, he's not just about his looks. In INTERSTELLAR, he doesn't have the kind of meaty role that he had in DALLAS BUYER'S CLUB, and it often paints him in "standard action hero mode" - but McConaughey takes ownership of the role with a mix of swagger and sincerity. There is a moment of sheer emotional power halfway through the film that works because Nolan only uses Coop's silent, heartbroken expressions as he watches video feed of his now-grown children - and realizing what he's lost. This is the one of the very few moments in the movie that has a genuine pull on your feelings - and McConaughey plays it masterfully without a single word. Just his face and eyes. This one scene pretty much makes up for all the numerous corny and false moments in the story. It's all due to Matthew McConaughey's acting. You will know this moment when you see it. It is heartbreaking and unforgettable - and it single-handedly saves the movie.
DISLIKES (here we go...):
1. Dramatically obvious and forced emotionalism. Many critics of Christopher Nolan have accused him of being too "cold" and "clinical" in his movies. This is a MAJOR fallacy, because the emotion is there to find in his movies - it's just woven so well into the story that it doesn't jump out at you. If it did jump out at you, it would be forced and ham-fisted. And that is the case with INTERSTELLAR: the emotional factor is somehow both over-the-top and under-developed at the same time. We never get a strong sense of the bond between Coop and Murphy (which is supposed to be the emotional engine of the movie). Also, Coop's decision to leave his family behind feels waaaaaay too easy. Since this father-daughter relationship is supposed to be the cornerstone of the story, its weak, almost perfunctory treatment hampers the whole story - especially since so much weight is put on it in the third act.
2. Weak supporting performances. What the hell happened to Anne Hathaway? She was smashing as Selina "Catwoman" Kyle in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (her first film with Christopher Nolan), but she is a near-blank here. It's as if she has no idea how to play Amelia. To be fair, though, Amelia isn't that interesting of a character to begin with. Hathaway is undoubtedly a talented actress, but she's got one lemon of a heroine to play, forced to utter such ridiculous lines of dialogue that you would expect to find in an sickeningly sentimental M. Night Shyamalan movie., not a hard-edged Chris Nolan one. Same goes to the usually terrific Jessica Chastain, who gets even less to do as a grown-up Murph. Chastain is one of my favorite actressess, and though she gets a couple strong-ish moments to play, she is largely left adrift with a character that feels rushed and sketchy.
3. Lame dialogue. Chris Nolan is not known specifically for sharp dialogue, but his strong storylines and vivid characters in previous films at least gave an impression of this. In INTERSTELLAR, with a storyline that is mishandled and characters who largely feel like caricatures, the dialogue has nothing to mask or aid it. Quite frankly, I can't believe the same guy who wrote INCEPTION and the Dark Knight movies wrote this same script. There are many cringeworthy moments that, I guess, were supposed to be moving and touching on the script page, but just had me rolling my eyes as it rolled off the silver screen. Amelia's speech about love transcending time and space, and her stupid decision-making off it, is just ridiculous concerning her training and the deadly situation they're in. Hathaway doesn't sell these lines, and I doubt even Meryl Streep could either. There's also a literal "Eureka" moment where Murph tosses papers from a balcony in glee, after having figured out an important conundrum, that is just somehow painful to watch. And don't get me started about how Professor Brand keeps repeating that poem "Do not go gently into that good night...", sometimes during the most inappropriate times. Instead of creating intrigue or interest, it just generates more eyeball-rolling. Nolan basically shoves sentimentality down our throats instead of using her normally subtle methods which were more effective and real. And that is so atypical of him. He usually knows better.
4. A plot that feels like "recycled M. Night Shymalan." The great thing about Christopher Nolan is that he has always usually told genuine stories without building them around some sort of cheap gimmick or twist ending. It's the reason that M. Night Shymalan's films have been regarded more and more unfavorably with each release: he builds his entire story around the twist. In short, the whole plot is a just a cheap set-up leading to a supposedly-clever pay off. Nolan has avoided this trap - until now. The entire plot of INTERSTELLAR is just there to serve a "twist ending" that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. As my buddy said: "it's a stupid ontological paradox." To me, it's just lame and sloppy - and beneath Christopher Nolan.
Ultimately, INTERSTELLAR barely ekes above average in our book because of a strong central premise and some moments of sheer awe and wonder - and that powerful scene with Matthew McConaughey halway through the film. If only the rest of it wasn't so... disappointing. We might have had another Christopher Nolan classic.
Ugh. What a wasted opportunity.
