But not all is lost, having bagged two recent Oscar-winnings
actors in the form of Matthew McConaughey
and Anne Hathaway as the two
leads. McConaughey is undoubtedly
the best of the entire cast, continuing the McConaissance with ease in his
biggest role to date. The Texan is superb in all environments; from in the
comfort of his character’s home with his family or in the deepest confines of
space. His character – Cooper – brings the story along with great ease and is a
good anchor for the more emotional moments like his contact back to Earth. It’s
unlikely he’ll earn an Oscar nomination so soon after his win, especially with
so many good male performances coming this year, but some recognition is
definitely required. Hathaway as
Amelia Brand is also good, but she does suffer a slight identity midway through
for the sake of the plot. It’s a very noticeable change, and is quickly
redacted in later events, but the placement has obvious intentions. The
remainder of the space crew are good enough, particularly David Gyasi as Romily as the main scientist of the bunch, and the robotic
duo of TARS and CASE (voiced by Bill
Irwin and Josh Stewart respectively)
are both visually stunning and great characters, even if they mainly explain
what happens or help the human crew when under threat. There’s also an
appearance by Matt Damon, but his
role is one shrouded in secrecy so the same will apply here aside from being
good in the role. It was a little distracting figuring out that it was Damon in the role, so beware of that.
As for the survivors on Earth, we go across two-three
timelines as they try and survive the dying of the light. Starting with Cooper’s
kids at their youngest we have Mackenzie
Foy and Timothée Chalamet as Murphy and Tom. Alas, Tom
has little impact in this segment as the force of love throughout the film is
towards Murphy instead, so poor Chalamet
does his best with the limited lines given to him, whilst young Foy, whose most noteworthy work prior
to Interstellar was Breaking Dawn Part Two where she would
later share 2 Razzies with the rest of the cast, mixes her acting range between
okay and good. Understandable for a young actor with little experience, but
perhaps the role was too much of a jump for her. Michael Caine as Professor Brand, the kick-starter of the whole
project, is more of an exposition revealer than a full-blown character as he
explains just about everything that is going to happen. Basically, repeating
his role of Alfred in The Dark Knight
Rises; but as ever he does a terrific job. John Lithgow also has an appearance as Cooper’s father-in-law, but
he doesn’t add much to the overall story.
Fast forward a few decades and Cooper’s children have grown up
into Casey Affleck and Jessica Chastain. Again, Murphy gets
more focus as Brand’s protégé, but this time round Tom represents the
old-fashioned way he was brought up by staying in the same house he grew up in –
the fact that we humans don’t like severe change and would like to continue
things as they were – and as such Affleck
is very sinister in the role. Meanwhile Chastain is superb as the scientist who won’t give up but somewhat
has already. Again, much of her role is shrouded in secrecy so it’ll be left
secret.
Perhaps the main highlight for the film is its visuals, as
it’s absolutely beautiful to watch. Nolan
uses a blend of visual and special effects, with the prop work particularly
standing out as great marvels. It was already known that he works well with
visuals, and Interstellar is no
exception. Sound design is also well done thanks to sticking the logic and
keeping shots placed in space silent. It follows the same pathway as Gravity did a year prior, but features
less of the loud vibration. One criticism is that at times the sound is a little
noisy for a 2D standard showing (god knows how it would have been in IMAX
surround sound), but apparently it’s an issue which varies across cinemas
worldwide, so it’s essentially a game of Russian Roulette for your ears.
The biggest criticism the film has received is that the plot
focuses less on the scientific know-how that Nolan has previously been famous for and gone with a silly outlook on
love, and whilst I have complained about love’s use in its instances in Doctor Who, here it’s okay. It does
contrive too much and is a bit too ridiculous for the story, especially the way
it comes across, but it isn’t as big of a deal as you’d expect. It’s sprinkled
across the film in little hints and teases (one of which unfortunately being
easy to predict) and doesn’t harm the final product as much as expected. The
only thing which really harms the film is its length though, clocking in at
nearly 3 hours. There’s plenty to cut and at times the film does stop to a
standstill, so with a few scenes removed it would benefit the overall quality.
Interstellar is a
film which follows in the footsteps of Inception,
Avatar and Gravity before it – the science fiction nominee for Best Picture.
But it’s a nomination well deserved, as while it does outstay its welcome and
some roles are just exposition you do have a thrilling adventure through space
and time. “Do not go gently into that good night” Interstellar, with your 8/10.
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