‘Interstellar’ Review By Nestor Bentancor. Christopher Nolan’s impressive filmography proves that the British director is a modern master that can deliver memorable movies, no matter the budget. A space odyssey like “Interstellar” seemed like a perfect fit, providing a huge canvas and interesting science fiction elements to paint with. The goal of writing this review is not to tell you if you should see the end result or not. If you are reading this I will assume that you already have. It is to help myself understand why I felt disappointed after seeing a very good movie. Early on we meet Connor, an ex-pilot that takes care of his two children and a farm that may not last much due to intensifying dust storms. This is a more believable character than Mark Wahlberg’s genius-bodybuilder-farmer in the last “Transformers,” but still, didn’t feel quite real. Not just because he is both “a simple man” and “the best pilot in the world” -capable of leading an expedition into outer space without any training- but because Mathew McConaughey plays him like a cowboy. His accent, so strong that I struggled to understand him -as much as Bane in “The Dark Knight rises”-, and his mannerisms made him looked like someone else impersonating the actor. I needed some time to get used to this and be able to lose myself in the fiction of the story. Another distracting element was the robot TARS. This piece of artificial intelligence feels out of place in a planet technologically stuck in time. There is nothing else remotely close to it/him. The suits, the gadgets and even the spaceship have an old-fashioned flavor in their design and performance. I applauded the decision made in “Inception” not to waste time trying to explain with pseudo-scientific mambo jambo how the device that made mind invasion worked. Here however, I think at least a couple of minutes should have been allocated to justify the existence of something that appears like the product of an advanced alien race. The best thing about the first part of the film is that we don’t spend too much time on Earth. But before launching towards the Unknown, we as the audience are asked to buy one more thing. The first of many more coincidences that the script uses to move the story forward. In the end the film tries to justify this parade of very convenient developments so they can’t be called plot holes. But while you are watching this whole terrestrial set-up, the way that Connor gets in contact with Professor Brand’s team is one more thing thrown into an already cumbersome start. We are finally in space and its immensity is depicted in a beautiful and powerful way. Visually speaking, the black hole is the most remarkable creation in a film full of strong digital and practical effects. I felt that I was in the presence of something divine, mysterious and magnetic. Released a year after “Gravity,” this black hole is pretty much the only thing that can really wow an audience spoiled by the tricks of a few Mexican wizards. Especially when the scenes in other planets only offer exaggerated versions of earthly landscapes. Similar to his apprehension towards the more “comicbookish” aspects of the Batman mythos, the writer-director avoids the level of strangeness that other worlds and universes have showcased in previous works of science fiction. Creatures and challenges weirder than mountain-size waves would have been less intellectual but way more fun. Probably, the main reason was to keep the focus on the main antagonist: Time. For someone that loves time travel stories, the way that the characters were affected by it was the coolest achievement, the most original and enjoyable ingredient of this movie. Just seeing how much older everyone was getting on Earth was enough to feel the impact of this crew’s sacrifice. That is why those explicit lines of dialogue about the power of love, apart from falling flat because of the way they were written, they were also unnecessary and ineffective. The characteristic subtlety and mystery of previous Nolan’s works were missing in moments like those. Talented actors can elevate a script, but the resulting mix of Christopher Nolan’s inputs and what his brother Jonathan had previously crafted for Steven Spielberg (before the latter abandoned the project) is an uneven product. “Prometheus” was heavily criticized for its incompetent astronauts, and though this group is a smarter bunch, what really helps them succeed is the fact they are very, very lucky. The space adventure sub-genre has memorable and forgettable entries, and “Interstellar” has passages that reminded me of both of those categories. The film deserves to be saluted because of its level of craftsmanship and the intention of challenging us while being a blockbuster. But, if its main goal was to transcend the limits of time to become a new classic, the mission wasn’t quite accomplished. “Interstellar” is now playing in theaters and IMAX nationwide.
