Interstellar is VFX overdose

• Tittle :Interstellar
• Cast : Matthew McConnaughy,Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain & Matt Damon
• Director : Christopher Nolan
• Genre : Sci-fi
• Rating : **
• Like : Establishing shots
• Unlike : Last quarter and running time

The earth is getting uninhabitable, what with crop failure and ecological devastation. Hence humans have to find an alternative which means space travelers need to go through a “worm-hole” to save humanity.That’s what ‘Interstellar’ is all about.

But for starters it is “terra firma” or solid earth we begin with. Former NASA pilot and widower Cooper Matthew McConnaughy) lives in the countryside with his father-in-law (John Lithgow) and his two kids Tom (Carrey Affleck) and a precocious Murph (Jessica Chastain) who is bugged by the presence of a ghost in the library.

Then one not-so-fine morning Cooper and Murph cross a metal fence and on the other side they are nabbed by a group of NASA folk who seem to be waiting for former pilot Cooper to send them into space “to save the world.” Among them is old Prof Brand (Michael Caine) and his bright and beautiful daughter Amelia (Anne

Hathaway). Cooper is reluctantly put on a spaceship along with Amelia, Romilly (David Gyasi) and Doyle (Wes Bently). Gravity is a major issue they have to contend with and one hears good deal of mumbo-jumbo.

Director Christopher Nolan whose establishing shots are quite effective then uses visual effects man Paul Franklin for the space travel. But this aspect gets rather repetitive, unlike Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ where less is more. Another major handicap is the film’s enormous length, all of 169 minutes. The last quarter just drags on annoyingly.

The meeting of twain stories, space and earth lacks credibility and that’s putting it mildly but this does not affect the performances. Matthew McConaughey is good but Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain are even better while Matt Damon makes his entry halfway into the film. Michael Caine is a pale shadow of his former self. See it only if you haven’t anything better to do.