The vastness of space is something movies will talk about, but usually struggle to show, the best examples being Star Wars or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Gravity immerses the audience in space’s beautiful endless silence from beginning to end. Anchored by a strong performance from Sandra Bullock mostly playing against herself, Gravity raises the bar and sets the new standard on any film set in the infinite frontier. Also, you will have to think twice about wanting to go into space since no one can hear you scream.
The story is pretty simple, new to space Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is installing some data tracking device with the help of Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), finishing his last mission. The mission goes awry when debris from a destroyed satellite cripples their space station. Ryan and Matt must find alternate means of transport home while confronting their own mortality.
Gravity’s 20 minute opening unbroken sequence helps set up its setting with great effect. Multiple camera shots give you different perspectives on what you’re seeing. Sometimes you’re spinning inside the helmet of Dr. Stone, unable to grasp where you are while Mission Control is freaking out. Other times, it will zoom out into space, showing just how tiny the astronauts look revolving around the Earth. Most frightening though, are the shots of deep space, because it paints a hopeless picture of drifting into nothingness as well as give faulty perception of objects that are travelling like bullets to destroy a space structure. The amalgam of perspectives gives the audience a distinct understanding of what sort of guts it takes to go up into space and how near impossible it is to survive the smallest miscalculation. It also gives the audience breathtaking shots of a sunrise or the aurora borealis. Gravity’s success is enhanced by Director Alfonso Cuaron’s use of 3D, which has no failings of the medium (blurry images, bad color) and utilizes all of its assets (flying objects, sense of depth).
What makes Gravity even more harrowing is its believability. Director Alfonso Cuaron wrote this script with his son, and set up very real obstacles that an astronaut would have to overcome. It’s hard to know if the debris is coming close because space is a soundless vacuum. Once the space station is ripped to pieces, Stone has to travel to the next station orbiting the Earth; however, you can’t just walk there; you have limited bursts of air to move you in the direction you want to go, and you cannot slow down once those bursts run out. Once you grab hold of the station, you have to make your way to the airlock, which will fly open because of the pressure changes. Once inside, you might be in another country’s station, so you have to remember your training and limited knowledge of another language to try to fly yourself home if you have no communication with Houston. Heck, even once you land, you might have to swim to safety. Gravity eclipses other films that have attempted to showcase space travel by sticking to logic and reality with the conflict, not creating a conquering race to overcome.
The emotional crux of the story relies mostly on Sandra Bullock (and a little on George Clooney). Bullock spends the final hour of the film by herself trying to talk herself into going on despite some traumatic past events in her life. A scene involving a dog barking over a comm is heartbreaking to watch, and Bullock sells every moment well: despair in the dog scene, fear in the spinning sequences, determination in her using a Chinese computer. Bullock has really matured as an actress since her Miss Congeniality days, and deserves recognition for her physical and emotional tour de force in Gravity.
Every now and then a movie will leave your mouth agape at what it is doing. You hear the buzz, but have a hard time believing what you are seeing. Gravity is that film for 2013. It is so visually engrossing and stunning and well acted that it leaves you breathless like the movie’s hero. Expect instead of being breathless from a lack of O2, it is from the excitement of seeing something truly special.
PS Normally I’m not a 3D fan, but if it doesn’t make you sick, please see this in 3D, it makes Gravity better.