Interstellar

For a movie that travels to other dimensions and planets, Interstellar remains grounded. And that’s a good thing.

The latest big-budget science-fiction epic from director Christopher Nolan (Inception) is filled with outer-space imagination born from curiosity and cutting-edge technology here and now. So even in its more head-scratching moments, it’s an amazing technical achievement that makes such minor narrative quibbles feel inconsequential.

The story takes place sometime in the near future, at a time when widespread windstorms and sickness have put Earth on the brink of famine. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a fledgling farmer and former astronaut chosen by NASA to lead a crew on a top-secret mission to prove the theories of a scientist (Michael Caine) about the possibilities of colonizing life on other planets.

Besides the inherent peril, the voyage would force Cooper to leave his two young children, perhaps for years. But he reluctantly accepts in hopes of saving the human race. The ensuing adventure visits remote corners of the galaxy, causing Cooper and his fellow explorers to clash over the importance of the mission relative to responsibilities back home.

There’s plenty of ambition in the screenplay by Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, which creates an intriguing futuristic landscape and boasts beautiful imagery throughout. Perhaps it’s an attempt to bring quantum physics to the masses, but the film tends to bog down in some existential mumbo-jumbo and an abundance of cheap platitudes about saving the world — as Cooper says at one point, “Mankind was born on Earth, but it was never meant to die here.”

Likewise, some of the wacko scientific theories get carried away, including notions of harvesting gravity, calculating relativity, and bridging traditional notions of time and space. That’s enough to cause headaches for most viewers, but luckily there’s a thrilling sense of adventure along the way, with superb visual effects and an ability to consistently ratchet up the tension even as the human drama is a bit wobbly. The result can be both exhilarating and exhausting.

At a time when space programs around the world seem to be spinning their wheels, Interstellar endorses the power of dreams and discovery instead of caution and complacency. While Nolan might be skeptical about the future of the planet, he’s brimming with optimism about the future of humanity.

Rated PG-13, 169 minutes.