As a script writer for hire and UK script consultant it’s taken me an age to watch Chris Nolan’s Interstellar and it will probably be a very long while before I watch it again.
I finally decided to see it, when I noticed how highly ranked it’s become on the IMDb (I think it’s pretty high up on the best films of all time list…)
I have mixed feelings about Nolan – I think ‘The Prestige’ is a masterpiece, I thought Dunkirk was good, the Batman films are enjoyable hokum, as for the rest? I’m not so sure and Interstellar fits neatly in with the ‘not so sure’ list.
It’s miles too bloody long – it apes Kubrick (but without the wit or intelligence) it wants to feel big and weighty – while at the same time, explaining everything in so much on the nose dialogue that all weight is lost – Chris, if you want to do a really complicated plot you need to have more guile that this…
The performances are all over (what’s wrong with Matthew McConaughey’s voice?) Are we meant to feel something at the end? Especially as Matt Damon’s character foreshadows the ending so much previously in the film? Going for big themes and thematic load is great – but it’s rubbish when it’s forced…
I mentioned Kubrick – but the director that kept coming to my mind was Walter Hill. Walter, (I think), would have cut the script down to 90 minutes and given it a good quick and dramatic through line. The characters would have been more taciturn, (no fucking poetry – how many times is that fucking poem done?) and the film, shortened, toughened and simplified would have been a whole lot more affecting.
Is there going to be a sequel? Good grief…
Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. He’s also a leading UK script consultant. You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb. You can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk or hire him on Peopleperhour