I seldom go to the movies these days. Rarer still do I go more than once in a single weekend. Last weekend was the first time I’ve done just that in the last twenty years or so, at least as far as I can remember. It happened that Saturday night I wanted to take in the new Christopher Nolan, science fiction, feature “Interstellar.” Upon learning of my intentions, my six year old son expressed his dismay at the fact that it was not suitable for him. Thus I found that I was duty bound to return to the theater the following afternoon to watch a more child centered film, namely “Big Hero 6.”
Interstellar is three hours of fun with relativity. It’s a visually amazing film, set somewhere in the near future on a dying Planet Earth. I will interject at this point, that the movie largely resists the temptation to push any kind of real political or environmental message, something I was a bit wary of going in. The setting is an ambiguous future, where life and technology are both old and new. One of the elements I appreciated is the combination of a world I recognized and identified with, along with inevitable scientific advances.
I won’t say too much about the Plot other than to reaffirm what readers probably already know. Astronaut turned farmer, Cooper, leaves behind his already fractured family, (particularly his brilliant daughter Murphy) and ventures into space and through a wormhole in search of a new planet for humanity to colonize. My favorite scene is one in which Cooper visits the “Eternal Now,” where he experiences all the moments of his daughter’s life simultaneously, while enjoying a cold beer with St. Augustine. (…Just kidding about the St. Augustine part).
As with any space and time movie, Interstellar has some holes, other than the black and worm variety. (I apologize for the incredibly nerdy pun. It was actually an accident… almost). For instance, neither the geopolitical state of the planet nor how the crisis on earth originated in the first place is ever explained. Of course if there’s anything George Lucas has to teach us it’s this: Don’t try to explain every little thing. Just ask the audience to accept the world you’ve created and tell your story. (I’m using Lucas as a negative example by the way). All that aside; Interstellar is a beautiful movie on a couple of levels. It’s well acted, and the cinematography alone is worth the price of admission. There are certainly questions I was left with by the end that I won’t divulge so as not to ruin the conclusion for readers who’ve not seen it. Don’t go if you prefer movies that wrap up neatly. My other complaint was the length. At almost three hours I was getting seriously antsy by the end. What can I say, I guess I’m just too old to sit still that long.
Overall I enjoyed the film, but confess that I will probably not completely grasp the entire plot until I’ve watched it again. But sitting through another three hours seems like an awfully big commitment at this point. I guess I’ll have to wait until it appears on HBO or Netflix. At least at home I can hit pause button from time to time.