Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway are explosive on screen together in this epic science fiction/action thriller.
Review by Chantal Victor
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Interstellar is exactly what you would expect from the man who brought us the likes of Inception (2010) and Memento (2000). The story follows a group of travellers who go on a journey through a wormhole in space, in search of another planet to inhabit, as earth becomes an unsafe environment. The team is led by Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and Amelia (Anne Hathaway) who are guided by Professor Brand (Michael Cain), and are challenged by the differences in time and gravity between our solar system, and the one they discover.
Where do I start? When I first realised I had to go and watch Interstellar, I wasn’t as thrilled as most viewers would be. I am not a fan of The Dark Knight, and I am always sceptical when I hear there is a new Christopher Nolan film in cinemas; purely because I feel at times he sells out to the public, and only gives people what they want to see. Yes, his films sells tickets, and the general public love his films, but I don’t feel that he ever pushes the envelope in terms of his filmmaking.
Interstellar happens to be a perfect balance between all my ideas of Nolan. There were hero-like characters that go on a journey to save the world, which everyone likes to see. For the female audience members, there is a love story with a twist following the sacrifices between a father and a daughter, and for the men there is an amazing adventure through the unknown world of space and time with spaceships and gadgets.
I didn’t care too much for the beginning or the ending. I know characters need time to be developed, and maybe it helps the audience to care more if many scenes are dedicated solely to this purpose, but I do feel these parts of the film could have been tightened up. In the first act I kept waiting for the space travel to start, and at times I felt that information was being spoon fed to me, as if I were too stupid to understand what was happening, however, the middle of the film was fantastic. I was taken on an emotional rollercoaster; I could feel the excitement as the travels started, the joy when something finally worked, the sadness of the characters being alone, and the fear of anything going wrong in their mission. The second act of Interstellar is really intense, and has an amazing way of explaining many of the fantastical elements and plot twists in the film, which I found very fulfilling, but then the final act took far too long to end. After going through so much with the characters I felt like I was done. It’s like when you go to a full buffet dinner, and you finish with dessert; you feel like you can’t have anymore, and then you go ahead and have that last glass of water. Just pushing it too far.
The only aspect I was looking forward to was seeing another performance by my screen crush Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyer’s Club, True Detective). He is a phenomenal actor who has really stepped up to the plate lately, and shown the world what he can do. It was difficult to believe McConaughey in the role of the parent of a young daughter as we are used to seeing him in romantic comedy roles in earlier years, and serious adult dramas in recent times. He simply lacks the traits of a fatherly figure. Once he began to share the screen with Anne Hathaway, however, he started to show the sort of prowess we have become used to seeing in his more recent works. Anne Hathaway (Princess Diaries, The Dark Knight Rises) is also making her own way, and proving herself to be a serious performer, and she especially does so in Interstellar. She portrayed her character extremely well; she manages to show strength without overpowering any of the men in the film, despite being the only woman on screen at times. McConaughey and Hathaway’s emotional performances were touching, and very much needed because they created a form of realism to some of the situations that otherwise felt so out of reach for the average viewer.
To my surprise, I found this film to be highly entertaining due to the fact that it combines thought provoking storylines, similar to Nolan’s Memento, with a thrilling space adventure like in Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity. The film contains some great performances, and kept me on the edge of my seat for the most part. I have to deduct a star on account of the lag that occurred in the beginning and the end of the film, but overall I am still giving Interstellar 4 stars as I truly enjoyed it.
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