Christopher Nolan’s new sci-fi film Interstellar, currently showing at the Apollo Theatre, reaches for the stars both figuratively and literally. Unfortunately, the film falls short of the director’s past cinematic success, which includes the Dark Knight trilogy, Memento and Inception as well as less recognizable titles like The Prestige or Following.

At nearly three hours long, Interstellar overstays its welcome. Large segments could have been deleted without compromising any of the character development or narrative weight. The film repeatedly hammers its message home with clunky, melodramatic dialogue that ultimately rings hollow despite the efforts of the cast.

The film begins with the Earth’s population in a permanent state of ecological and economic depression, having depleted its natural resources, in a setting reminiscent of the Great Depression. The planet’s few surviving inhabitants also suffer from the consequences of a global dust bowl. Fortunately, the mysterious Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, arrives on the scene to save the day. He pilots a shuttle with female lead Brand (Anne Hathaway) into the deep regions of space beyond our galaxy through a wormhole near Saturn. The team seeks to explore planets that are potentially habitable in order to save humanity from its current plight. From this point onward, the plot becomes overly complicated, relying on the dumbed down presentation of advanced physics to justify its more outrageous devices.

The relationship between Cooper and his daughter, Murph (played by Mackenzie Foy as a child and Jessica Chastain as an adult), drives the story forward. The film focuses on the message that love transcends space and time, which turns out to be too generic for its own good. While there are certainly touching moments between the two characters, the film relies on the relationship too heavily and fails to land the emotional punch of one of its most climactic scenes.

McConaughey, Hathaway and Chastain’s performances are all satisfyingly solid efforts. In particular, McConaughey’s portrayal of an engineer turned farmer turned space explorer (not to mention model father) carries most of the film. Michael Caine appears in his expected role in a Nolan film as the professor and mentor to the protagonist. Hathaway provides an emotional grounding to the film during long stretches set in the confines of the spaceship.

Interstellar boasts some of the most impressive special effects seen on film to date. If nothing else, the movie is worth a viewing for some of the sequences that demonstrate these visual effects, especially those that harken back to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Though mildly entertaining, the overlong runtime and canned messages prevent the film from reaching the great heights that it grasps for.