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Parents' Guide to

Interstellar

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Ambitious intergalactic drama focuses on a father's promise.

Movie PG-13 2014 169 minutes
Interstellar Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 13+

Based on 41 parent reviews

Melissa M.
Melissa M. Parent
July 4, 2021
age 11+

Awesome movie. Kids will love it for different reasons as they grow up.

Interstellar has been one of my and my daughter's fav movies since she was about 8. She's 13 now and we still love it. It's one of the few movies I can stand to re-watch, and we both enjoy how her understanding of the plot develops as she gets older. - It's a complicated story rooted in physics that everyone may not gravitate toward (hehe). If you're into science or sci-fi, it's probably for you, but if you're not, it seems from other reviews that it can be confusing. The plot hinges on the concept of relativity, which thrills me as I wish scientific literacy was more widespread and this does an amazing job of making it entertaining. I don't see plot holes, but enough folks do and I think this is the barrier to more widespread enjoyment. We love that it's not overly simplified and some thinking is required!! That said, if you 'get' that time can dilate under conditions encountered during space travel, it's not that complicated. - There is cursing. IMHO, it's the okay kind of cursing that's permissible for adults (at least, that's what we teach our kids, that sometimes adults curse) - not directed at people or used with rude intent. - (semi-spoiler alert!!!) There is one very intense scene in which one character tries to kill another. We still FF past that scene, and it's the only scene that, in our family, made this harder to watch at a younger age. There're a few minutes of extreme peril. - The theme about the bonds and immutability of love strikes a great tone. Many of the pivotal decisions that drive the story are motivated by love, and they're messy and there are inconsistencies and trade-offs, just like in real life. Love can be hard to talk about and to understand. Yet there it is, driving us all, and Interstellar gets right at it. We love this movie. It's right there with The Martian, Contact, and Arrival as favs in our household. Very entertaining. Characters, relationships, and decision-making highlight real-world complexities and make great discussion fodder. Kids and parents can be proud of themselves for linking complex story elements, and may learn something to boot.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
5 people found this helpful.
Madison C.
Madison C. Parent of 15-year-old
April 15, 2023
age 14+

TV-14.

For 14 and up like High School and up.

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
Great role models
Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much consumerism
1 person found this helpful.
See all 41 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Director Christopher Nolan's INTERSTELLAR takes place in a future in which severe drought has killed most of the world's crops, and humans are dying of starvation and disease on a doomed, dust-covered Earth. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former pilot/engineer who, like the majority of Americans, has had to trade in his defunct career to work as a farmer. Coop's love of science is evident in his young daughter, Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), who swears there's a ghost in her bedroom leaving her messages in code. Coop is unbelieving at first but then helps Murph decipher one of the codes, leading them to a secret lab run by Professor Brand (Michael Caine), who heads what's left of NASA. Brand reveals that they sent a group of scientists through a wormhole leading to another galaxy -- and that now a small group of brave souls must embark on a mission to see whether any of those scientists found an inhabitable planet. Brand convinces Coop to be the life-and-death mission's pilot, with the understanding that his time spent in outer space could mean missing many years on Earth (one hour on one planet equals seven years on Earth) -- years that he'd be away from his children. As the team tries to survive unthinkable odds, back on Earth, Murph grows into a brilliant scientist (Jessica Chastain) obsessed with finding her lost-in-space father.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (41 ):
Kids say (173 ):

Unless you're well-versed in the physics of wormholes, don't expect to understand the intricacies of Interstellar's science. And there's a lot of science, most of which sounds unbelievable, but it gets the story where Nolan and his brother Jonathan (who co-wrote the film), need it to go -- from the dust-smothered and scorched Earth to the dangerous outer reaches of space. The visuals are gorgeous, and not just in space, where Coop and his fellow astronauts -- Amelia (Anne Hathaway), Doyle (Wes Bentley), Romilly (David Gyasi), and the wise-cracking militarized robot, TARS, voiced by Bill Irwin -- travel from planet to planet, but also back on Earth, where time is passing so quickly that Coop's now grown children have all but lost faith that they'll see him again.

Occasionally the time-bending storyline starts to feel like it's stretching time for viewers as well, but somehow the missions -- both the one to save mankind and Coop's personal one to see his kids -- are compelling enough to keep audiences interested. McConaughey balances the line between dead serious, sarcastic, and heartfelt, and he plays well off of his co-stars (particularly his space team). Both the young and adult versions of Murphy are perfectly cast, and Caine -- whose professor has a penchant for quoting Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" -- provides elder-statesman gravitas as he did in Nolan's Batman films. As Hathaway's character explains, love is a force that transcends time and space, so if you feel invested in Coop's promise to Murphy (and, to a lesser degree, his son, who grows up to be played by Casey Affleck), you'll forgive some of the confusing and convenient plot loops and concentrate on the possibility that at some point, this father will embrace his children again.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how Interstellar is similar to, and different from, other serious/thoughtful space movies -- like Gravity, Contact, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. How would you describe it to friends -- as a sci-fi movie, a thriller, a family drama, or what?

  • Does the violence in the movie seem less upsetting when it's man vs. nature instead of man vs. man? Why do you think Professor Brand keeps quoting Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"? What does the poem mean?

  • Director Christopher Nolan is known for movies with psychological themes that play with time, space, memory, etc. How is Interstellar like his previous films? How is it a departure?

  • How would you describe the parent/child relationships in this movie? Are they realistic? Relatable?

Movie Details

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