Movie Night With Lauren #4: From The Martian to Interstellar thanks to Matt Damon. Dude loves space! Check out the explanation for Movie Night here.

Basic Synopsis: The Earth is having trouble dealing with all these people on it, so Matthew McConaughey must turn to space to save us all.

Brief Thoughts: I’ve put this movie off for a while since it’s a lengthy film dealing with a lot of concepts a little out of my grasp. The fear that I may fail to connect the dots on some of the plot points isn’t without warrant, but it’s really not as confusing as I expected it to be. I definitely have questions that need answering as a few elements fail to make sense, but I never felt completely lost along the way. At least when I could hear the words being said. Not hearing the dialog can be a real hindrance…

Long story short to avoid spoilers, Interstellar is a beautiful film that is definitely worth seeing at least once. Just be prepared for an unexpected amount of tears along the way. No lie, I cried on three different occasions. The only other time I have been that emotional during a film was with Marley and Me. The theory of relativity really bums me out, and that is a big player in this film.

Quick Question #1: Did McConaughey’s character, Cooper, not have to renew his flight training at all? I know he has a history with this stuff, but he’s been a farmer for a while now, so it isn’t unreasonable to assume he’s a little rusty in the space travel department. But why be cautious when we can just send him to space the day after he discovered this was even a possibility? It’s not like he’s the last hope for Earth or anything…

Quick Question #2: Anyone else really disturbed by the cryogenic sleep chambers? Did they really have to make them look like body bags?

Randomly Awesome Quote: “The last people to starve will be the first to suffocate.” Suck it, people with food!

Let’s Talk About That Ending (Spoilers): As I mentioned before, Interstellar has a lot of concepts that went over my head, so I had to talk a bunch of it out with the more intelligent boyfriend who is into all this stuff. That said, one part of this film that I just can’t give a pass to is the scene in which Jessica Chastain is back in her childhood bedroom as an adult. I have had the whole movie to see this reveal coming, but the realization that the ghost that has been knocking books off her shelf is her dad just comes out of left field. Seriously, how the Hell did she come to this conclusion? I guess it could just be a feeling, which gives Anne Hathaway’s speech about love more of an impact on the film, but still. That is one jump that I have a lot of trouble accepting.

That’s just part one of that scene that I have a problem with: I understand that Cooper is outside the laws of space and time in the dimension of infinite peepholes into a child’s bedroom, I follow that this is how he is able to send messages back to his daughter, but I don’t quite get the bit with the watch. The film pretty much gets a pass in the make-the-rules-up-as-you-go department for the science fiction elements, but that does not change how watches work. How does it keep displaying the morse code message from Cooper after he stops touching it? Did he rip that watch apart and mess with the gears while we weren’t looking? Even then, how is it displaying different data points? Even if the second hand of a watch is glitching out, it would probably just bounce between two points in the same manner repeatedly. I REJECT YOU, WATCH!

Last, but not least: Why does Cooper sneak away at the end? He’s going back to Brand so she isn’t alone on her own planet, but why go alone? Shouldn’t this space station send out a large party to the planet in order to colonize? Is he going to get her and bring her back? Are they just going to live out their days together alone? I guess they have all the test tube babies, but still… It’s just more responsible to bring in more people to handle all that is involved in raising a population.

Final Thoughts: I’m pretty sure the boyfriend thought I was too stupid to understand this movie before I sat down with it, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying it. The length is a doozy, but I didn’t really feel it while I watched because I was so excited by and interested in everything that was going on.

Granted, that doesn’t mean I am in any rush to watch it again. Instead I will go to the movies Interstellar reminded me of, from Signs to Take Shelter to Sunshine. Also, I may learn to play the organ.

Additional Reading: Click here to read Zac’s spoiler free review from back when the movie was originally released. Zac and Grant also break it down further here.

Path So Far: Hick →  Black Death → The Martian → Interstellar

Next Rental Up: If you’d like to watch Interstellar it’s currently available for free on Amazon Prime. I’ll be moving on: Christopher Nolan leads to Insomnia, Matthew McConaughey leads to Mud, David Oyelowo leads to Selma, Anne Hathaway leads to Rio 2 or Song One, Casey Affleck leads to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints or Gone Baby Gone, and Jessica Chastain leads to Crimson Peak or The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.

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