Interstellar

Source: Bizarro

The greatest advantage and the gravest disadvantage about a science-fiction film is that they are mostly based on a premise that defies common sense and may not even be possible. Much like Modern Physics and the theories of relativity that defy what we perceive as common sense. But it would be ignorant to say that they aren't true and it would be ignorant to say that Interstellar is complete fiction.

If I were to be completely frank, I would say Interstellar is pretty much another 2001: A Space Odyssey without the mind melting finale it gives. It is a captivating film with visual effects to kill for, a lot of which is shot in IMAX, capturing beautifully the horror of the cosmos. Much like 2001, it talks about man's place in the universe and makes a solid statement at that towards the climax. It tries to juxtapose emotional, scientific, rational and survival instincts, each of equal significance and asks the characters to choose between them. It looks like a pretty easy choice to the viewers but the film shows how reality is far more different.

At a rudimentary level, Interstellar is a lot of science but a lot more of fiction. It addresses paradoxes of time and space but leaves much to the 'magic' of a five dimensional world. So let's leave the science to the explanations of the films in documentaries and talk of it as just a film; and not just any film, n 'All Time Great' film.

Look at Matthew McConaughey, the male protagonist Cooper, who pilots a spaceship carrying a crew to a different galaxy via a wormhole created by some 'higher beings' to search for a planet where the inhabitants of a dying earth can survive and flourish. McConaughey is one actor who takes his role seriously enough to give it his everything. Similar is Cooper's character and so they tune in nicely. Another notable performance comes from Michael Caine (but of course) who plays Professor Brand, a physicist trying to device a theory in order to make it possible for all the earth people to reach the new planet. Caine, undoubtedly, looks intelligent enough to pull this through. Anne Hathaway as Cooper's partner on the ship and Brand's daughter has been given less work than she can actually take. A particularly solid character is that of Cooper's daughter that brings the right amount of emotional mix into the story. All this coupled with time dilation and black holes makes for one hell of a movie to watch.

The best thing about Interstellar is that it is intelligent and silent at the same time. Of course when you incorporate actual science in a movie, you throw in some exposition then and now into the scenes but look at those serenic pauses that it provides you to let the reality of the havocs inside the ship sink into the quiet of the outer space. The movie even succeeds at finding reasonable importance to the melodrama it throws at some points which I initially hated but later pardoned; because the overall excitement and thrill of the movie is awesome enough to complete it without any higher morality or supernatural phenomenon or any brain frying ending.

Bandwidth Verdict: It is an 'All Time Great'. But if you haven't seen it at a theater or in an utterly high quality, you haven't seen it at all.