Confusing journey - but still worth taking

GRAVITY (the force that keeps us all grounded, that is, not last year's award-winning film of the same name) plays a critical role in Interstellar - the hugely ambitious, visually stunning and intricate new sci-fi thriller from Christopher Nolan. Given the director's proven skills in combining The Big Idea with grown-up entertainment of the highest order (The Dark Knight trilogy, 2005-2012; Inception, 2010), it's only natural that his cinematic vision has now been taken to, well, infinity and beyond.

Nolan has a habit of challenging his audiences and Interstellar is nothing if not a stretch for the intellect. You don't need an advanced degree in astrophysics to understand some of the theories put forward here - although it might help. Not everything makes sense but even though the film - a tale of two imperfect halves - asks a lot, it gives much more in return.

Thanks to its epic scale, cerebral nature and Nolan's impeccable eye for detail, Interstellar weighs in at slightly under three hours; the survival of the human race is at stake, after all. The first part of the movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic future on terra firma - Planet Earth, afflicted by blight and dust storms, has been depleted of its food supply and reduced to a crisis situation - while the second half involves the desperate search by a group of explorers for a habitable alternative in outer space.