Imagine trying to determine if you left your car keys in a cluttered kitchen … while completely blindfolded.

You could sweep your hand across the counter, but when suddenly some metal jingles and falls to floor, were those keys or simply some dirty silverware? And when you reach down for them and find nothing, were they never there, or did they simply fall behind the garbage can?

And if you searched for an hour but didn't find them, would you know with certainty they weren't there? Or would you wonder if you, perchance, didn't see them … because you couldn't see?

This hypothetical scenario is a bit absurd, but no more absurd than trying to discover existential truths while purposefully remaining blind to the existence of God. In other words, how futile is it to ask where do I come from, why am I here and why do I love … when you won't allow God as a viable answer?

This very scenario trips up both the logic and the entertainment value of the much-anticipated film "Interstellar," a mind-bending journey through both inner and outer space from "Batman" and "Inception" director Christopher Nolan.

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The movie itself opens with a dramatic and moving performance from Matthew McConaughey as a former astronaut trainee named Cooper in a dystopian near future where the remnants of mankind are desperate just to feed themselves from the barren ground. The story of Cooper and his family is compelling and introspective, with just a hint of mysterious to push the tension.

There comes a point, however, when Cooper must leave his family behind to fly a last mission into space, an effort to save the human race with answers from beyond the solar system.

Throw in some well-written dialogue and the instant gravitas of veteran actors Michael Caine and John Lithgow, and "Interstellar" was off to a stellar start.

Unfortunately, after liftoff, the movie begins to wobble like an unbalanced top. Sometimes funny, sometimes cliché, sometimes riveting action, and driven by an ensemble of actors that don't quite make it work, the movie gets a bit lost in space. The pace begins to drag, more impressed with itself than impressive for audiences. To make matters worse, its ending is part predictable, part nonsensical and just isn't up to par with the rest of the film.

In summary, this is a film that wanted to be great, but succeeded only at being good, and it's hard to hide my disappointment.

But this column is about more than grading entertainment. It's about worldview. And in this case, the film's confused worldview is part of the reason it doesn't really take off.

Like a blindfolded person reaching out for those keys, it brushes upon key questions and metaphors, but can't seem to grasp the Truth.

"Love isn't something we invented," the movie wonders. "It has to have meaning."

Indeed it does.

The movie also draws a great metaphor for the depravity of man and our need for salvation in a character aptly named "Dr. Mann" and even more aptly called "the best of us," (I'll say no more to avoid spoiling the plot) as well as a discussion about whether the natural world the astronauts will face is "evil."

"I don't think nature can be evil," a character reasons. "That's what we take with us."

But even as big questions about love, evil and what's "out there" sit on the counter, ready to be picked up, the movie stumbles about with its secular blindfold on.

Things that are supernatural, the film insists, just aren't "scientific."

And when it comes time for the big finale, the movie presents a completely atheistic, secular humanist answer for everything. I can't say too much to avoid spoilers, but when the film probes into the meaning of love and life and then concludes it's all just evolution … that isn't profound. It isn't satisfying. It's empty.

Those aren't the keys you found on that counter, "Interstellar." Those are dirty silverware.

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