Despite its 169-minute run-time, Interstellar gives plenty of its supporting characters the short shrift. The epic canvas is so focused on the central mission that a number of seemingly important characters barely get a look in: for starters, Cooper's son Tom doesn't really seem to matter much as a character, and it's surprising an actor of Casey Affleck's caliber was brought in to perform such a piecemeal role. Then there's the other members of the Endurance's crew, Doyle (Wes Bentley) and Romilly (David Gyasi), with Romilly just about registering as a character while Doyle is simply set up as a meat puppet to be killed off once they arrive on the first planet, in order to sell the danger of the mission. Romilly then dies later on and is promptly forgotten because he's barley given any character beyond spouting exposition (another problem to be addressed later). In addition, there's other tiny parts like adult Murph's scientist buddy Getty, who is played by Topher Grace for just a few short minutes, and whose name will be remembered by precisely nobody who watches the movie. Perhaps Nolan's pull is just so strong that great actors want to work with him no matter how small the role, yet even on their own as played by unknowns, these parts all feel ridiculously scant.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
