Director Christopher Nolan brings a passionate, action-filled film to theaters.

Interstellar chronicles the story of a retired astronaut on a difficult, seemingly endless quest to save the human race, leading him to difficult times and strange worlds.

Set in the future, a character called Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a retired astronaut. He works on a farm in the midst of a crop blight plaguing the entire world. He recalls his astronaut roots by telling his daughter, Murph (Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain), about the joys of space.

One day, dust seems to fall in a linear pattern near Cooper and Murph’s home. After deciphering the dust as a code, they are led to a secret base in the mountains. There they meet Professor John Brand (Michael Caine), head of NASA, and his daughter Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway). They have a plan to save the earth from the blight. They want Cooper to pilot a spaceship and find a new world for them to live on. This sends Amelia and Cooper on escapades across space and time, as Murph waits at home for her dad to return.

Despite its nearly three-hour run time, this film held my attention with its depiction of a father’s love for his daughter and exciting moments. Nolan uses actors that someone might not expect to be in the same film together to create an emotionally terrific movie. It shows that Cooper would do anything for his daughter—even though she begins to lose hope in him, he never gives up on her.

At the beginning of the film, McConaughey seems slightly out of place as a farmer. He fits awkwardly into the part due to roles he has played, such as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club and other action roles. However, as the film progresses, he slides into his part. By the end of the film, I just couldn’t get enough of this astronaut-turned-farmer. He captured my heart when he fought not only for his daughter, but for the entire world.

However, the opposite could be said of Professor Brand’s daughter in the film, Amelia. As the film advances, she slips from a serious asset to the space-traveling team to an obstacle that must be overcome. She makes mistake after mistake. You wonder why she was put on the team in the first place. I began to think the director only added her to give Cooper a romantic love interest.

Without a shadow of a doubt my favorite character was Murph, astronaut Cooper’s daughter. She represents all children who long for an absent parent—her goal is to see her father again. She questions whether he ever loved her and why he left. While at some points she is selfish and doesn’t seem to care about the rest of the human race except for her dad, she is definitely a relatable character.

Interstellar was—by far—one of the most emotional movies I watched in 2014. It tugged at my heart as I wondered whether Murph and Cooper would ever be reunited, and it showed the effects that time spent apart has on family. The movie had me hoping that both families would one day be reunited with their loved ones. I was almost in tears as I watched Cooper use all of his willpower to return home, and I was captured by Amelia’s love for her father.

The film definitely took my mind for a spin when it addressed the future of mankind and time travel concepts, such as the way Cooper goes back in time to help his young daughter. I am still pondering these ideas. It shows us how humanity will evolve; how one day, we could conquer time. I also saw that if we do not deal with climate change, we will do serious damage to our earth. The crop blight happened in Interstellar because they didn’t properly care for the environment. While for us it may not be on such an extreme level, there will still be drastic changes and serious damage.

I give Interstellar four out of five stars for its original storyline and creative ideas. Minus the few mind-warping parts like the complicated concepts of time travel, it was three hours well spent. I was taken on a trip of adventure and emotion. Interstellar is a movie definitely worth watching.