There’s not much to say about Interstellar. Partly because Christopher Nolan asked not to spoil the movie for everyone else.

But that doesn’t leave much to say. Because explaining what it’s about already gives too much away.

The director and his brother Jonathan Nolan have gifted us with remarkable moments in film history. Always meaningful and expansive in scale, their concepts are at times mesmerizing and confounding. Most of the time, audiences simultaneously experience a mixture of the two. Most of the time for the better.

The Nolans have a tendency to telegraph their last reveal far more than is required. And it is with Interstellar that it is the most bothersome. In Dark Knight Rises, the fact that Miranda Tate was really Talia al Ghul wasn’t as important to the plot—she was the villain regardless of who she purported to be—as to the theme. But in Interstellar, everything centers around that unrevealed concept. And while the amazing production design and save-the-world adventure distracts from easily connecting the dots, the emotional throughline of the story narrows the focus on the father-daughter relationship. Such that we are constantly reminded about what lengths Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper will do to save his daughter.

The journey is far more satisfying than the final destination. And such it is with Interstellar. Closing in on Boyhood running time, the movie packs in a lot of exposition and ground work in the first act. Sometimes it meanders. But Nolan certainly picked the right actor for our guide into this world. In the Q&A portion at a special SAG screening, the Academy Award winner referenced his anti-hero roles of late. When he first read the script, he didn’t know how to be the hero, the everyman. He’s forgetting his early days, emerging as the would-be Golden Boy who’d take Hollywood by storm. His underlying sensitivity may be weighed down by brashness and self-obsession, but in every character he plays, that sensitivity is palpable.

Nolan always brings the best out of his performers even if by the use of one word. Jessica Chastain said that the director gave her a note on a scene: “Zen.” It worked, and that shot made it into the movie. There are a lot of stars in Interstellar, not including the ones in outer space. And a grand story like this is ever deserving.

It may not be his best or his worst, but keep in mind, Nolan’s worst is far better than most anything out there.

‘Interstellar’ is a good movie that so desperately wants to be important. That sentence is going to read as churlish, but I do admire ‘Interstellar’ for at least attempting to be something that’s not dumb. There are already too many dumb things we are subjected to on a daily basis. And ‘Interstellar’ is ambitious, even though there are a lot of head-scratching scenes. Yet, there we still are, spinning out of control with the reality that Nolan has created – and it’s only when we stop spinning, when we look at it from afar, that we kind of realize how absurd it all was … even though it leaves us craving a little more.

It breaks my heart to not be swept up with one. I did not walk in with the expectation of a cinematic experience on par with Gravity or even Contact, but nor did I expect such an overall un-engaging experience. Despite penning what amounts to a “mixed-negative” review, I would never tell anyone not to see it. In-fact I would recommend seeing it on the biggest IMAX screen you can find both to encourage such film-making pursuits and to encourage glorious 2D IMAX. It is a well-acted film of ambition and intelligence, albeit one that falls short in overall visceral and overall emotional impact. It is a film about interstellar travel that is ironically at its strongest when it remains Earthbound.