Gravity (2013)

Rating: 5/5

Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity is being hailed as one of the year's best films. I find myself agreeing that it is among them. The definition of the movie is rather relative to my opinion: IMDbers are up in arms about it not being a real sci-fi movie because it's not fantastical enough, as you'd often expect movies of the genre to be, with lasers and time-travelling and all sorts of good stuff. But then, I assume, they would not class Apollo 13 as sci-fi under the same premise. Gravity is not like Star Wars (contrary to an analogy I heard some young X-Factor contestant make). It is the story of an intelligent doctor Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) on her first space mission with veteran Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), and everything that can go wrong does. What I liked most about the movie is seeing the reactions of an intelligent, logical, sort of tomboyish woman faced with impending death. This profile was the most intriguing.

Stone and Kowalski are spacewalking, making repairs to the Hubble Telescope, when a shower of space debris smashes their space shuttle to smithereens and the two find themselves detached, careening through deep space. The early scenes are probably the most powerful. Before any threat is detected, they float gently around, making repairs, and in nice close shots, the Earth in the background seems like a cloudy blue sky, like any we could see from home. It creates a mystical, false sense of homeliness. Then, when the initial impact comes, we see Bullock's character, attached to a giant metal arm which has been blown off the shuttle, spinning furiously through space. It is dizzying, it is sickening. It is one of very, very few (the second ever, if I recall correctly) film sequences to make me feel physically sick. I suddenly realised just what relevance those nail-biting astronaut training machines we see on the TV actually have. This is space carnage like we've never seen before, and Stone is (luckily or not) still alive, spinning among it.

Stone and Kowalski manage to rendezvous and reattach to each other, yet that smidgen of hope is soon sucked away, as Kowalski (for debatable reasons) pulls the whole self-sacrifice number. It happens several times, with Stone taking one space-step forward, and the two space-steps back. Her relentless, and sometimes hysterical, efforts seem to be repeatedly rewarded with another, bigger problem. I started to wonder at one point whether she really was lucky to be alive or not.

Gravity has a few really solid, strong points to it. 1) The story is relatively simple, with only two main characters. It avoids complicating things with too many small characters or whole monologues of scientific mumbo-jumbo. 2) It further avoids complicating things by keeping to a manageable 90 minute running time. Too many movies of the genre become unbearable just from being far too long. 3) Performance is great, particularly from Bullock. Her aforementioned reactions to impending doom are quite refreshing, and so truthful. It was very nice to see her take her tomboy typecast to a genuinely emotional level. 4) Visuals are nothing short of spectacular. The all-encompassing endless darkness, colossal space shuttles smashing like sheets of glass. The film is so terrifying because it is so involving.

Cuarón knew absolutely what he was doing with Gravity. The magnificent script was penned by him and his son Jonas, and they employ a brilliant shift of perspective between an onlooker, and Stone herself, from inside her helmet. They also get the right doses of action, jargon, emotional backstory, terror and reflection. I draw repeated attention to their keeping the running time to 90 minutes. Too many potentially great movies have ruined themselves by overrunning, by spinning things out longer than necessary. Gravity begins, runs, and ends exactly as it should, as we enjoy it.