So there are a couple of kinds of science fiction films, but this one falls squarely into the “mystical science fantasy that is actually about human relationships” bucket. It’s extremely like Solaris or The Fountain or 12 Monkeys in that respect; but as a film in that bucket, this one’s actually impressively narratively coherent and straightforward.

I mean, don’t get me wrong — it doesn’t actually make sense. If you wonder why characters are doing what they do, the answer is mostly “because that’s what the screenwriter wants them to do.” Very few of their actions are smart or sensible if you step back and think about it for even a moment. So, y’know, don’t do that.

But it’s comprehensible; you can understand what’s going on at any point, you know what the stakes of success and failure are, and what those look like, you know how one scene led into another (even if it was because people did stupid or inexplicable things). It’s got mystical elements, sure, but it’s a very rational mysticism.

So the basic plot here is that we’re on a dying Earth, where due to an unspecified eco-catastrophe, humanity has mostly been reduced to subsistence farming, and even that’s not going so well. There’s a bit here about how important it is to dream and study science and go to space even in times like this, but it’s not the main point of the movie.

The main point of the movie is that for various reasons, Matthew McConaughey has to leave his daughter to go save humanity; she doesn’t take this well, and when he ends up being gone longer than he thought he would, them missing each other at great distance is pretty much the core emotional and narrative through-line of the movie.

I mean, also I guess the future of humanity is at stake, there’s that, too. But see above about how this is a movie that’s really about relationships.

The big overarching plot stuff works fine, but not more than fine. This isn’t a movie that blows you away with its big themes and big ideas; it’s all obvious, and pretty much goes how you think it would go.

But the movie is better than fine, because each scene works. The scenes on an apocalyptic Earth feel appropriately run-down and entropic and hopeless. The scenes in the titular interstellar places feel alien and tense. (Really, the whole back half of the movie is incredibly tense, moved along by enough bass to make me worry that I might be bothering the next-door neighbor, even though our houses aren’t that close and their garage is closest to us.)

It’s not a great movie, but it’s a good one. Nolan’s a talented filmmaker, even when he’s working with an uninspired story.