Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain & Matt Damon

Running Time: 169 mins

Release date: 7 Nov, 2014

Worldwide Gross: $132,151,000

 

 

 

 

Basic Plot:

 

Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is an ex-pilot of NASA who leads an expedition through a wormhole in order to find a new place for humanity.

 

Clock Watching? 17/20

 

Just short of three hours long, this film could have benefitted from some editing in the first act. It’s difficult to decide whether that time we’re given with Cooper and his family is truly beneficial to the rest of the plot, or completely unnecessary. The result being that it’s slow pace may push certain viewers to disengage with the film. On the other hand, the first act forces the spectator to experience the slow burn of this unnerving omniphobia. 

 

Oscar Performances? 19/20

 

Matthew McConaughey’s performance as Cooper is nothing short of outstanding from start to finish. The character’s complexity makes him more believable and we’re constantly aligned with him, although we may not agree with him all the time, especially when it comes to his choices within parenthood. This makes the film’s telling all the more tragic and tough to take.

 

The other performances are no match to McConaughey’s. Anne Hathaway’s performance as Brand is an average one, at best. She delivers the strong female character to balance against Cooper, however her performance is a forgettable one. The surprise performance of the film was Matt Damon’s as Dr. Mann, although his screen time was limited, the impression his character left was one that was dominant throughout the rest of the film.

 

Lights, Camera, Direction? 19/20

 

Nolan’s auteurship becomes even more profound within his ninth feature film. Throughout we see nods to Memento (2000) with its complex, non-linear narrative and glances of Inception (2012) are thrown in with its clever set direction and augmented realities. But he takes his direction so much further within this film than he ever has before. Each landscape he creates is more visceral and atmospheric, holding an uncanny reality to what we understand as habitable. The vast spaces contradict themselves with creating a claustrophobia. Nolan creates sequences that force the viewer to look on with an inescapable tension. 

 

Tell a Friend? 19/20

 

I will certainly be singing this film’s praises for a long while. However, I feel this film needs to come with a pre-warning of ‘not for the faint of heart’ due to its unrelenting tension. You will most certainly come away from this film feeling frustrated at Nolan’s recurring trait to leave a profusion of unanswered questions.

 

Again? 20/20

 

Absolutely. As most of Nolan’s films go, this film will offer more to the viewer upon the second and third viewings. Similar to Stanley Kubrick’s films, I’m sure that every person will come away with a different view of what exactly happens in the film, and what the real answers are to those enigmatic questions.

 

Total: 94%

 

This is certainly Christopher Nolan’s bravest and most complex film to date.

 

by Jennifer Lyne