Nolan has space for another gem
Memento, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige, Inception – there aren’t many directors out there with a body of work as phenomenal as Christopher Nolan.
The modern master of cinema turns his hand to the outer limits of space for the first time with a homage, of sorts, to Kubrick’s seminal sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Once again scripting with brother Jonathan, Nolan’s head-spinning spectacular follows a group of explorers – led by Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper – going on a crucial space mission to try to save the human race.
In many ways Interstellar is a tough film to review as the less you know going in the better. Like Inception, the production was shrouded in secrecy and the trailers gave little away.
There’s a real old-school, “event cinema” style to Nolan’s work and in this digital age where information on just about anything is just a click of a keyboard away it’s a real achievement to be able to view a movie with such a sense of wonder and genuinely not know what is coming next.
Worm holes, a frighteningly realistic dying Earth and the space-time continuum are a step up from your average blockbuster intellectual fare and, while there’s a lot of science talk, you’ll just about manage to keep up.
Linking up with Nolan for the first time, McConaughey’s family man with brains terrifically leads the way and shares great scenes with young Mackenzie Foy as Cooper’s daughter Murph.
The Nolan brothers craft a perfect mix of intergalactic and human drama, coaxing typically strong performances from Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Casey Affleck and others.
And those who say Christopher Nolan can’t do emotion very well will be forced to eat their words – particularly during several video messages that blitz even Bruce Willis’ teary, heroic farewell in fellow space mission-to-savethe-world flick Armageddon.
Creative flourishes abound in his wonderful looking film too, from talking head documentary-style scenes and arguments over the validity of the Apollo moon landings to a jaw-dropping water-based set piece too good to spoil here.
Long-term Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer’s hypnotising score works brilliantly and the director also makes clever use of periods of silence to build tension, evoke wonder and recreate how it feels to be in space.
A shock third act twist makes you genuinely wonder how anyone can make it out alive and the parallel editing showcasing developments on Earth and – at times – goodness-knows where is similar to Inception’s dream-within-a-dream climax.
It may be a bit long and the ending could divide audiences, but in my book Interstellar marks another out of this world piece of cinema from a director not afraid to take risks.
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