Somewhere deep in the inner recesses of Christopher Nolan's space epic Interstellar, there's a halfway decent movie just waiting for liftoff. But good luck finding it within the depths of the movie's interminable 168-minute running time and good luck hearing it after being driven nearly deaf by Hans Zimmer's rumbling, ear-splitting score. Thank God it wasn't in 3-D, too—I don't know if my senses could have taken any further punishment.
Back on Earth, having survived, I think what Nolan ( collaborating with his brother Jonathan on the script ) has wrought is a cross between a big-budget disaster picture like 2012 and a sci-fi extravaganza with a strong philosophical bent ( Danny Boyle's Sunshine and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey being obvious reference points ). And, yes, with the underlying global-warming warning theme and a comic robot that looks like a giant domino ( minus the dots ) there's more than a hint of Wall-E here, too.
Years after global warming has decimated the earth, the emphasis has shifted from technology to farming, though that too has become increasingly dodgy. Massive dust storms are the norm and, one by one, sustainable crops are disappearing. Cooper ( Matthew McConaughey, who draws on his Southern drawl more than usual ) runs one such farm, with his corn withering away—and his resolve to make life as a widower with his cynical teenaged son Tom, 10-year-old daughter Murphy and cranky father-in-law ( John Lithgow ) as normal as possible slowly slipping away.
Murphy is convinced a ghost is haunting the dust-ridden farmhouse. ( No one seems to have thought of insulating the doors and windows. ) After one such storm Cooper, a former astronaut and mechanical engineer, figures out that the dust trails left in Murphy's room by what she deems the ghost is actually a coded message. Jumping into their pickup, he and Murphy follow the coordinates and discover a secret NASA installation with an underground bunker the size of Kalamazoo.
Inside the installation they meet Professor Brand ( Michael Caine, playing Michael Caine ) and his brainy daughter Amelia ( Anne Hathaway ). The professor tells Cooper that a wormhole has been discovered in space, leading to another galaxy and different planets—possible new homes for the people of Earth. Cooper is tapped to lead an expedition to the planets and to track down what happened to a previous group of space explorers. Amelia and several others ( including the chatty, wall-sized robot ) are also going along for the ride.
That covers about the first hour—but there's a lot more plot to come. Veering between the large-scaled journey through the cosmos and the emotionally intimate scenes with those left behind ( Cooper's grown-up kids, played by Casey Affleck and Jessica Chastain ), the Nolans' script has a veneer of sophistication, what with all the intergalactic mumbo-jumbo. But for all the big ideas bandied about—the stuff about wormholes, inscrutable physics problems and other dimensions—it all comes down to the usual: Love will save the world.
That's not such a bad theme for a science-fiction blockbuster. It worked for Spielberg with Close Encounters and E.T., and it might have worked for Christopher Nolan. His grandly scaled movies are ultimately like the approach of the Death Star or the Borg—inexorable, unstoppable, worth admiration for their sheer size alone. But they're also chilly as hell and, no matter how much psychological torture he persists in having his characters suffer from, they're devoid of anything beyond surface emotion. So … while Interstellar earns plenty of points for ambition ( and how ), Nolan's attempt to weld simple emotions to such a large tapestry ultimately gets lost in space.
Eddie Redmayne has steadily seen his profile rise after a series of interesting indie film roles ( including a startling turn as the gay schizophrenic who murders his socialite mother, Julianne Moore, in Savage Grace ) and a breakthrough one in Les Miserables ( as the luckless Marius ). The young ginger-haired actor now comes front and center, portraying theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in the romantic drama The Theory of Everything.
Hawking's concurrent battle with ALS, which overtook him while studying at Cambridge in the early '60s; his romantic love affair with pretty brunette literature major Jane ( Felicity Jones ), who would become his determined wife; and Hawking's ascent onto the world stage via his remarkable work are the bases for James Marsh's movie. Redmayne's physical transformation as the insidious disease takes hold is not just an astonishing parlor trick ( though it certainly has those aspects ). At moments ( such as when he slowly crawls upstairs, willing his child not to be afraid by what he is seeing ), Redmayne transcends the punishing physical aspects and Hawking's personality is so strong that the deterioration doesn't dampen it a whit.
The movie, based on Jane Hawking's memoir of the marriage, scrimps on the science stuff ( fine with me ) and Jones certainly does a remarkable job with the surprisingly steel-willed Jane; however, ultimately the romance that provides the backbone of the story and hogs the spotlight doesn't quite click—perhaps because it's the most ordinary thing in the life of the altogether extraordinary Hawking.
Film notes:
—Fedora, Billy Wilder's feature about a Garbo-like movie star whose lifelong obsession with remaining young and beautiful for the cameras at any cost is the subject of this lurid 1978 melodrama. The material, junky yet fascinating with its emphasis on plastic surgery is based on a novella from gay actor turned novelist Tom Tryon's best seller "Crowned Heads." Marthe Keller plays the title role, William Holden ( who starred in Wilder's 1950 Hollywood themed masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, which Fedora bookends ) is the down on his luck producer who desperately wants Fedora to make a comeback in his movie, and Hildegarde Knef, Jose Ferrer and Frances Sternhagen are the creepy trio of caretakers out to protect Fedora's secret at any cost. The film, which is by turns acrid and melancholy was unfairly overlooked at the time of its release and is getting its long overdue home release in a restored version on DVD and Blu-ray thanks to Olive Films. http://www.olivefilms.com/films/fedora/
—Special effects galore: Disney's reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale goes the Wicked route with Maleficent, now out on DVD/Blu-ray. Angelina Jolie is in spectacular form as the title bad girl who curses the princess after being spurned by her old flame. The film's spectacular visual style and effects are matched by Jolie's equally spectacular visage.
The actress, who always registers best when playing hyperdramatic characters, really gives her all and galvanizes the movie every moment she's on screen ( and she easily helps one overlook the dreadful miscasting of Sharlto Copley as her nemesis, the king ). Dwayne Johnson, another mighty fine visual special effect, headlines a lavish new version of the sword-and-sandal epic Hercules, also out on DVD/Blu-ray.
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