Interstellar, and why I hated it

The cast, and other details are here -- Interstellar (IMDB)

Interstellar was a boring experience. From the beginning, the wagon was moving so slow that I thought I'd catch myself yawning. I know. My friends and the ones who know me better are smirking by now, "serves you right. You were the one who were going gaga over the Nolan effect". But, things were wrong here.

A movie director is supposed to control the artistic and dramatic aspects and should be able to visualize the script. Things becomes easier when the director is also the script writer (as is the case here). What went wrong is with the cast. Nolan chose a star too bright, so bright that Matthew McConaughey outshines the rest of the universe. Literally, you see Matthew perform and forget to see the diminishing Earth from the space-pane. Anne Hathaway does her bit of acting, so does the others.

I'm not going to reveal the plot, that would break the promise I made to Nolan. But, I can tell you the areas from where the plot is 'lifted', i.e. from "Back to the future", "Zathura", et al. Does that mean there is nothing original in the film? No. What is original here is the visualization and the filmmaking. You get to go close, and even inside a black hole. At least in "Gravity" you knew already how space walk worked. But here, nobody knew how a black hole looked like. So, full marks for ingenuity.

But, an hour to make us understand a brittle father-daugther relationship? That ruined the movie. If you remember, Inception gave us a much deeper account of a broken marriage in 15 minutes. Talk of economy and ingenuity.

Coming back to Nolan. I've always struggled how to describe my affinity to this Briton called Christopher Nolan. Do I like his direction, cast, filmmaking, visualization, script-writing, his choice of music directors (reads Hans Zimmer)? Even if I were to know what I like of him, I still wouldn't know the 'why'. That's when Baradwaj Rangan's article "The Man who does too much" came to the rescue. Mr. Rangan sees Nolan as a guy who 'wants to be considered so deep, it must hurt him'. And Bazinga!

If Rangan's description were true, if that alone were the law, then I see Nolan as a higher version of me or me as a lower version of Nolan. There are so many things going on in my mind all the time. Even when I want to avenge a soul for a wrong done, I empathize with that soul and understand the motives behind his actions. Such an empathy greatly reduces my need to avenge, but leaves a vaccum inside of me. I ask myself, "You understand the world and pardon it for every wrong done. Who will understand you? Who will pardon you?" When I first saw Insomnia, I didn't know Nolan directed it. I felt as I knew why Robin Williams acted the way he acted in the movie. Then I saw Inception, and I understood the movie in one shot. My friends (many) told they had to watch it 2-3 times to get the plot. Maybe they paid too much attention to the background, or the amazing Hans Zimmer music. Nevertheless, I watched Inception 5 times at different mind-states. And I got to go deeper in the characters' psyche. I watched Prestige and I knew instantly why it didn’t matter for Christian Bale to see all those floating dead Hugh Jackmans in the last scene. "Are you watching closely?"

Only after I watched Prestige did I know that a Christopher Nolan existed. And after that is common sense. I googled him, and got pleasant surprises. I like to watch movies. I see it not as an object of time-pass. I see it the way they are made to be, 'pieces of art'. Movie is a creation by the director, crew, et al. We remember the movies but forget the ones behind it, just the case with mothers. I empathize with the characters, and voice my dissent if the plot does not do justice to the characters or vice versa. Which is why I hated the movie Interstellar for the first 1 hour. Then came Matt Damon and did the unpredictable, the unthinkable. And I saw through Matt Damon's psyche. And it is from here that I loved Interstellar. And, if you've read the article this far, then you already know why I loved Interstellar.