Christopher Nolan’s sweeping sci-fi epic about humanity’s search for a new home
Year: 2014
Certificate: 12
The ‘in space, no one can hear you scream’ genre has had some great entries over the years, and Christopher Nolan’s typically sweeping and discombobulating take is right up there with the best.
Matthew McConaughey is Cooper, a former astronaut who is persuaded to undertake one more voyage to find a future for humanity in the stars. Food supplies are rapidly running out on Earth, as Cooper knows better than most, since he has retired from flying to become a wheat farmer. He lives with his children, Murph (Mackenzie Foy) and Tom (Timothée Chalamet), and his father-in-law (John Lithgow). But then he encounters his mentor, an elderly NASA scientist called Professor Brand (none other than Nolan’s favourite actor Michael Caine) and sets off on a mission, in which he is joined by Brand (Anne Hathaway), that becomes increasingly mind-warping.
It’s pretty bewildering for the audience, too, but if you can let the complications of the story wash over you (or, better yet, understand them) and don’t mind the inevitable po-facedness of the genre, then Nolan’s film could well feel close to perfect. (169 minutes)
