Interstellar has the weight of extraordinary expectations as Christopher Nolan’s first directorial outing since The Dark Knight Rises and Matthew McConaughey’s initial appearance following the actor’s Academy Award win for Dallas Buyers Club - the cherry on top of the past two years’ “McConaughnaissance”. There is a sense that filmgoers are looking for the space adventure to be nothing less than transcendent, exhalent, the second coming…calorie-less salted caramel ice-cream and so on.

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When a creator is deemed a visionary and/or a master of their craft in their lifetime, the viewer can become either more critical or more forgiving. It feels as though that very human tendency may play into the initial response to this film. Interstellar has the potential to sweep the audience along in an imaginative and entertaining space fable; to spin an emotional web that will leave some enraptured. Others may take umbrage with the film’s problematic logical through-line and narrative disconnect. I find myself drifting between these two perspectives.Interstellar has been shrouded in secrecy and it’s our intention to honor the creators’ wish that audiences maintain as blank a slate as possible; which makes the reviewing process tricky, as we’ll have to hold the majority of examples and illustrations of the points for post-release. For now, all we’ll say about the plot is what you can see for yourself in the trailers: Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a man facing an extinction-level crisis who must journey to the far reaches of space in an attempt to save both his own family and humanity at large.At its core, Interstellar is a quintessentially Christopher Nolan film. It’s gorgeous. There can be no doubt that Nolan is in many ways a technical genius with an admirable emphasis on practical effects, as well as an ability to deliver stunning examples of what utilizing those tools can mean for an audience. There is a tangible, visceral sense to the created universe that is thrilling. Interstellar has been very consciously designed as an in-theatre event. In fact, viewers will rob themselves of a crucial piece of the film’s appeal if they choose to experience it for the first time on another format. When it comes to aesthetics, Nolan truly is a visionary. The Earth as depicted is as fascinating and meticulously crafted as the planets the film takes us to.In addition to superb world creation, there are some heady notions of time that the film is playing with, which are mostly based on scientific theory. It’ll be fairly easy to pull the tread that unravels the science, but if you give yourself over to suspension of disbelief, then Interstellar has the potential to propel you on an engaging and emotionally resonant path; replete with moments that will leave the viewer breathless. However, some may be forced to disembark during what is - in many ways - a clunky final act.Interstellar’s story is peppered with logical breaks, but they are for the most part pardonable. One can fill in the gaps and reason out the narrative holes, if they so choose. An effort is made to bring us along and ensure that those of us who do not have PHDs in physics can buy into the circumstances as - at least to some degree - plausible. Interstellar may be grounded and rich in visual detail, but it’s still a science fiction film after all, and much of the story is going to venture into in the realm of pure imagination; the magical “what if?”However, the climax is where the film seems to make a conscious decision to entirely divorce itself of its own logic; therein lays the true issue. It’s not so much that the film stretches our understanding of space and time, but rather that it introduces its own set of parameters, only to then break or at the very least muddle them. The audience is left with not so much grand philosophical questions, but with head-scratching queries about how 1 plus 2 ended up equaling E.In addition, the human behavior - such as the characters’ decisions, conclusions, and reactions to events - often defy logic. One small example is that Cooper’s daughter Murph has a response to her father’s choice that becomes entirely befuddling at a certain point. We wont go into details here, other than to say that while the initial behavior makes sense, further along in the story she has enough information to respond in a different and far more mature manner. Again, we can’t go into further elaboration, here, but that’s just one relatively minor illustration of what become intermittent story and character issues.Nolan is a painstaking taskmaster in so many respects, so the areas where he is not are often thrown into sharp relief. On the technical side, the sound mix is problematic in that key moments of dialogue are muffled. (Though, to be fair, that may have been more due to poor sound in the theatre the film was screened in.) The finale leaves the viewer wondering if the creators fell back on a Deus Ex Machina because they didn’t have a workable out or if they simply believed that we, the audience, wouldn’t notice. It’s certainly possible that viewers will take note, but ultimately won’t care. Those hooked into the emotional trajectory of the tale may breeze past the mental gymnastics others must undertake in order to make the conclusion work. Having said that, as mentioned, another question arises when thinking about this film: Is analysis sharper because this is Nolan endeavor? Or is far more excused for the same reason?The scope and scale of the undertaking – both cinematically and in terms of the story - cannot be denied and is, frankly, astounding. Nolan also demonstrates his directorial acumen in the casting. Each role is perfectly suited to the actor, even in the instances where he’s made surprising choices. The performances are exemplary - as one would expect with this cast - with the characters’ fear and sense of awe palpably felt. There’s a wonderful surprise appearance from a well-known actor that is just gloriously bonkers. It drives certain themes home relentlessly. So what, though? It’s also bananas in the grandest possible sense. In addition, this introduction hits on one of the film’s more understated ideas: The human drive for – not just survival – but legacy; significance beyond the grave. One thing that may surprise audiences is that Interstellar is also often quite funny. Nolan delivers much of what we’ve come to expect from him as a filmmaker here and also stretches a bit.One of Christopher Nolan’s greatest gifts as a filmmaker is that he is able to reach a mass audience while playing with big ideas, though he more dances around them than delves in, here. Openly borrowing from 2001, Close Encounters, and other films of that era, Interstellar has a hook that will be easy for both Hollywood and moviegoers alike to get behind. It’s a story about one family in the midst of an intergalactic drama. The themes are presented and touched on rather than fully explored, but they are nonetheless present throughout.It touches on dilemmas we each face: our place in the world, in history, how to reconcile the time we want to spend with out family vs. our desire to excel in our work and hook into some grander sense of destiny. It places those concerns within the framework of a future where nothing less than the continuation of the human race is at stake. Yet, it is the simple story of a father’s love for his daughter and hers for him that drives the film. Ultimately, Interstellar is an entertaining, if wonky, science fiction yarn that is as visually spectacular as an audience would hope for, expect, and demand of Nolan.