Our verdict: four stars

Dir: Christopher Nolan

With: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway

Runtime: 166 minutes

Where Alfonso Cuaron's space opera Gravity had the "wow" factor, Christopher Nolan's brilliant but brain-scrambling Interstellar has what might be termed the "Eh?" factor.

Perhaps Stephen Hawking, or Kip Thorne, the theoretical physicist who advised the filmmakers, could have sat through this near three-hour tale of love, loss and voyages to other galaxies without scratching their bonce at times, but for those of us whose scientific knowledge barely stretches to being able to set up a universal remote control, it was slightly tougher going.

But whatever the complexities, it is clear that Nolan, the visionary director of Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy, is the true heir to Kubrick when it comes to science fiction that bends time, space and minds. Compared to this, Gravity was child's play.

At its heart the story is a simple enough family drama. The film opens in the near future, where a widower, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is bringing up his two children on the family farm. Environmental catastrophe, and a subsequent food crisis, has sent humankind back to the agrarian age - and now the food is running out.

As luck and plot would have it, Cooper used to be a pilot and engineer. If the call comes to go searching in space for the answers to what ails humanity, will Cooper have the right stuff to do it?

If you think you can fill the rest in from there, forget it. Over 166 minutes, Nolan, working from a screenplay co-written with brother Jonathan, and with the aid of a cast that stretches from Michael Caine to Jessica Chastain, attempts to enter every narrative dimension possible.

The result will either be mounting delight or creeping despair on the part of audiences.

Even for Nolan fans, this one will be an opinion divider, between those who think it is his best film yet, and those who hanker after the more audience friendly pyrotechnics of Inception.

One cannot dispute, however, the breathtaking ambition on show here. No-one can touch this filmmaker in boldly going where few others would dare. Lose yourself in Interstellar and you'll be glad he did.

On general release November 7