Interstellar

Year – 2014          Time – 169 Minutes        In Theatres now

Directed by – Christopher Nolan

Written by – Christopher and Jonathan Nolan

Starring – Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, Mackenzie Foy and many more.

The earth has turned to dust and is no longer able to grow crops. Humans are living in a dust bowl and can hardly breathe. The world as we know it is coming to an end and a secret NASA organization is looking to the expansive Universe for a life line.

The United States is now a society solely based on Agriculture. They need to grow as much as possible so the human race does not starve. Everyone is encouraged to be a farmer and higher education is only for a select few.

Cooper (McConaughey) is a former astronaut who is now a farmer.  He is also a widower who is raising his teenage son and his young daughter Murphy “Murph” (Foy) with the help of his father ‘n’law (Lithgow).

Murph is a very curious and precocious ten year old. She loves reading her Dad’s old school and University text books that tell the history of the Space race between the former Soviet Union and the United States. Murph gets in a fight at school because the new school text books say that the United States never went to the Moon and she believes that they did.

Murph believes there is a poltergeist in her bedroom because the ghost is sending her coded messages using gravitational waves. These messages lead Cooper and Murph to a secret NASA location led by Professor Brand (Caine).

Professor Brand explains to Cooper that a wormhole has been shown to them by an unknown species. Cooper realizes that “they” are the same species showing Murph the clues.

Brand convinces Cooper to lead a mission into space to find out what the other universe beyond the wormhole has to offer. Finding a habitable planet is humanity’s only hope of survival.

Cooper is joined by Brands astronaut daughter Amelia (Hathaway) and two other astronauts.

This is an epic movie. It is very long and confusing. I would recommend researching Einstein’s general relativity equations and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne’s work. This film is actually based on Thorne’s work. The story is fascinating and showcases humanities desire to survive. It is also a cautionary tale of the importance of taking care of our planet.

The cast is great, the cinematography is spectacular and the special effects are amazing but I found it too long. It is a good film and I would recommend it because of the subject matter.

I give this film 3.5 Kernels out of 5 and I rate it PG13.