Yesterday I went to see the movie Interstellar in IMAX. To be honest with you, I am still trying to wrap my brain around it! In a dystopian future, the earth has lost the ability to sustain itself and the final crop is about to be destroyed by a blight. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former NASA pilot and engineer who has had to become a farmer due to food shortages but is not content with this role. He ends up at a top secret NASA installation which has discovered a worm hole to another galaxy. Ten astronauts were sent through the worm hole several years ago to determine if ten planets in this galaxy are able to sustain life. Three of these astronauts have sent back favorable reports. NASA believes that the only way to save the human race is to colonize one of these planets. None of their pilots have actually been to space so they recruit Cooper to lead the expedition. However, NASA's chief physicist (Michael Caine) has not yet solved the problem of evacuating the human race from the Earth's gravitational pull. Cooper decides to go on the mission even though he is leaving his son (Timothee Chalamet) and daughter (Mackenzie Foy), justifying it because he is saving them. Once in space, Cooper and his team (Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, and David Gyasi) encounter one obstacle after another: one planet is too close to a black hole, time on one planet passes much slower than it does on the space station, an astronaut on one of the planets (Matt Damon) has gone crazy from the isolation, gravity is still an issue back on Earth, and, due to a series of accidents, there is not enough fuel to return to earth. In addition, NASA believes that there are sentient beings in another dimension guiding the people of Earth to a solution in space (which is how Cooper found the NASA compound in the first place). Does the plot sound convoluted? It is and, in true Christopher Nolan fashion, there is a huge plot twist at the end! Frankly, I didn't know what was going on half the time! It almost didn't matter. Even with all of the confusion, my attention never wavered during the almost three hour run-time. The film is beautiful and the special effects are out of this world (pun intended). Traveling through the worm hole is one of the coolest things I have ever seen and an emergency docking with the space station had me sitting on the edge of my seat holding my breath! It is quite a spectacle. Also, the personal drama between Cooper and his daughter (Jessica Chastain, as an adult) is incredibly compelling and McConaughey's performance is brilliant. Nevertheless, even hours after seeing this movie, I still don't know what to think about it. I suppose the fact that I am still thinking about it is reason enough for me to recommend it!
Note: A major complaint is that the sound sometimes overpowered the dialogue. But, since I know nothing about astrophysics, I probably wouldn't have understood the dialogue anyway!
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