Interstellar really nails Murphy and Tom’s relationship to Cooper
Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar just turned 10 years old and has been re-released to IMAX. Seeing the masterpiece in 70mm is a life-changing experience but it also highlighted a very real relationship to me that I didn’t see before: The difference between how Cooper interacts with Tom vs. Murphy.
I am the youngest of three and I’m the only daughter. As deeply as my father and mother love all of us, it is different when it comes to a father and his son vs. his daughter. My oldest brother has a different dad so that relationship was always unique to me but in watching Interstellar, I couldn’t help but notice the change in how Murphy is treated versus Tom.
Tom (Timothée Chalamet) has a lot more responsibilities. He’s older, he likes farming, and his father can trust him. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) doesn’t ever treat it as a “you can’t do this because you’re a girl” thing but there are difference in how he talks to Murphy (Mackenzie Foy). As their grandfather Donald (John Lithgow) pointed out, Murph is the most like Cooper.
We’ve seen movies about a father and a son and even ones about a father and a daughter. But the specific dynamic of a father with his two kids is rare in cinema. Even more so when it is an older son and a younger daughter. Maybe I’m just hyper-aware of the nuances because it reflects my own upbringing but it is a testament to Nolan. He mastered how a father like Cooper would treat his children. And McConaughey played Cooper in such a way that you understood why he acted this way.
A very telling goodbye
Cooper is leaving to go on a mission for NASA and he doesn’t know when he’ll make it back. His goodbye to Tom is very simple: A hug and a promise to bring his truck back for him. It isn’t long-winded and it isn’t overly emotional. Just a teenage boy who knows what he needs to do while his father is gone. With Murph, it is very different.
While one can argue that this is a “girl” response, she’s reacting in a way that Cooper would as well. It reflects how much she is like her father and the anger she feels at him leaving is made that much more emotional when she reads him the message from her ghost: “S.T.A.Y.”
Knowing the ending of the movie, I was left a blubbering mess seeing this in theaters. Call it my own desire to speak to my dad again or just being overly emotional but Murphy and Cooper’s goodbye scene really works. It not only shows how deep their connection goes, why he will always be her ghost, but it also displays a side to Nolan’s work that we don’t often see.
Nolan is seen as this bigger picture man. He has grand ideas that are explored beautifully in his work. But people often comment on the lack of relationships in his work. That’s not something I agree with and a movie like Interstellar really shows Nolan’s ability to tell a character driven story in this larger universe.
I don’t know that I will ever see Interstellar and not sob. But we at least will always have Murphy and Cooper’s story to turn to when he need a good cry.
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