Director Alfonso Cuarón has one of the best visual eyes in Hollywood, hands down. Anyone who has seen the grittiness of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men or the brilliance he brought to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban can attest to the kinetic talent he has behind the lens. His latest spectacle is the survival tale of two stranded astronauts in the first Oscar-bait film of the season, Gravity.
[pullquote_right]Gravity succeeds tremendously as a jaw-dropping roller coaster ride. [/pullquote_right]The film stars two of the biggest names working in the business right now in George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, which normally would be distracting from the story, but both actors turn in excellent work. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is on her first space mission, doing some upgrades or repairs on a satellite with her veteran chaperone astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney). In a freak accident, a Russian missile, most likely taking out a spy satellite, creates a wave of debris moving faster than gunfire that wipes out their only method of returning to Earth, while the debris continues to orbit and pick up speed for more deadly passes as their oxygen begins to run out.
Gravity succeeds tremendously as a jaw-dropping roller coaster ride with huge spectacle sequences that will leave audiences squirming in their seats and short on breath. The only thing I can accurately compare the masterfully shot set pieces in this film to would be some kind of motion-movie ride from Disneyland or Universal Studios, especially since some of the sequences here are first-person and gave me the cold sweats. Everything feels and looks so genuine that you are never pulled out of the film to ask yourself how they did it because you just believe you are really watching these things happen in space.
Like other survival tales such as Castaway, this film has really no supporting actors other than its two leads. Cuarón does some nice work in the opening scene to establish each character’s personality, but wastes no time in putting them in a perilous sequence that immediately shoots the “wow” factor of the film through the roof and actually manages to meet (or top it) in a few other disaster-ridden action scenes. But Gravity never loses sight of the truly eerie scares of isolationism and claustrophobia that can be much more prevalent and unsettling in space than any deadly debris flying at you.
[pullquote_left]She’s floating in space with no radio contact and no way home, that should be enough to get audiences behind her. [/pullquote_left]Not everything in the film is as beautifully orchestrated and groundbreaking as the film’s action sequences, namely the script that leaves a lot to be desired. Alfonso and Jonas Cuarón penned the space disaster flick, and many of the emotional beats and story structure felt recycled and forced into it to fill time between the next mind-blowing survival sequence. Don’t get me wrong, Clooney and Bullock sell it like the pros they are, but Kowalski on his “last mission before retirement” had Danny Glover somewhere shaking his head and Dr Stone’s tragic backstory, while sad, felt unnecessary and like a calculated attempt to add Oscar content for Bullock. She’s floating in space with no radio contact and no way home, that should be enough to get audiences behind her.
Gravity is not a film for those with sensitive nerves, but is an absolutely wondrous achievement in film-making. The camera moves as if it were alive, the veteran leads shine despite some thin material, and the major action sequences are unlike anything you have ever seen before. Critics will love the performances and technical wizardry that went into Gravity, and casual movie-goers will be floored by the hair-raising intensity of the tale of two stranded astronauts. Despite its script flaws, Alfonso Cuarón has easily one of the best pictures of the year, as well as the first must-see film of the fall.