Film / Reviews
Interstellar
Interstellar (12A)
USA 2014 166 mins Dir: Christopher Nolan Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Mackenzie Foy, Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn
In 1951, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas published for the first time what many consider to be one of his finest poems, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Written as a tribute to his dying father, it is known for the repeated motif, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”.
is needed now More than ever
Thomas’ poem features often during Christopher Nolan’s ninth feature as director. Being at its heart a Father and Child movie, it is not hard to see why Nolan has chosen to feature the poem.
This is without doubt his biggest work to date and his most intimate. The world is dying. Engineers aren’t needed. Farmers are. If you can make it through the dust storms, corn is the crop of choice and everyone is just trying to survive. The widowed Cooper (Matthew McConaughey continuing his career renaissance) has a farm, he has crops, a father in law and two kids at home. Tom will follow in his father’s footsteps on the farm as there are no new places for engineers at college. His daughter Murphy however is a different kettle of fish. She’s bright, inquisitive and has a nose for science and adventure that she gets from the fighter pilot that her father once was.
This attention to detail on the domestic front is consistent throughout the film. At its most epic and galactic, it always feels like it is firmly rooted in home truths. Like Dylan Thomas and his battle cry to his father to ‘Rage…’, so too does Murphy’s family.
That’s the domestic side of the film. The epic space odyssey starts with the dying earth (another thing to rage at) and Operation Save The Human Race. In the hands of a lesser director, it would be nothing more than an intergalactic Relocation Relocation. With Christopher Nolan, you are never handed anything on a plate. He asks questions, he poses hypotheticals, he demands your attention and asks you to actively engage. To tell you anything further about the story would be mean and undermine its power.
Interstellar, like Inception before it, will polarise audiences. The work you have to do is not for everyone. Neither is the near three hour running time. However, if you like your cinema smart, insightful and arresting then this is for you.
Operatic in style (beautifully partnered with regular composer Hans Zimmer), Nolan has created a visually stunning and beautifully crafted masterpiece with an explosive narrative and on-form cast including the brilliant Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck and a wonderfully controlled and commanding Anne Hathaway. This is vintage Nolan: classy, eloquent, unflinching and all-consuming.
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