Interstellar (2014)


Nolan’s every movie has inspired awe in me. After the end of each of his movies, I keep on thinking, that how is it possible for a man to create something so powerful and inspiring?

There is something to admire in virtually every frame of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. This is a film of soaring ambition, intimate and epic in equal measure; a bold cosmic adventure with plenty wide-eye moments. And for a person like me for whom, space has been a topic of interest for long, its a fest for exploring ideas.

The film is based on the work of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who is well-known for his contributions to astrophysics and gravitational physics and was a consultant and executive producer on the film. Some are criticising Interstellar for being nonsensical and far-fetched, but this is a criticism that can’t be applied as everything that happens in the film, according to scientists, could and might happen in reality.


Set in a not-so-distant future where the world is choked by dust storms and doomed to extinction, the film stars Matthew McConaughey as Cooper, a former pilot and widowed father of two, who is asked by chief NASA scientist Professor Brand (Michael Caine) to lead a mission through a wormhole in our solar system to search for new planets where mankind could possibly survive. Three other astronauts, including the professor’s daughter (Anne Hathaway), and a witty talking robot join Cooper on this expedition to galaxies far, far away.

Cooper’s deep emotional bond with his beloved daughter Murph, however, that is the emotional heart of the film. Their parting, when he can’t promise the 10-year-old (an excellent Mackenzie Foy) when he’ll return home, is heart wrenching. As is the moment when the now grown-up young woman (Jessica Chastain) makes a devastating discovery of her own.

In the end Nolan gives us plenty to chew on, leaving us to ponder important questions about love, sacrifice and mortality. Like Inception, this is a film that demands not just to be seen, but experienced. It’s a film that dares you to keep up with it, to navigate through all the heavy-handed cerebral exposition, to spot its many nods, particularly to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 : A Space Odyssey.


All the performances are spot-on, with McConaughey and Foy’s relationship being well-played out at the heart of the film.

I don’t know how Nolan manages it but he betters himself time and time again, with Interstellar not only being the film of the year but one for the decade.

I am going with four-and-a-half out of five for Nolan’s Interstellar. It is the pure perfection of the film that will leave you shaking at the end.