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So as you know, I stopped writing lengthy reviews on this site this year, keeping the blog as more of a film diary of sorts.  Lo and behold,...

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Movie Review - Gravity

Gravity (2013)
***viewed in 3D***
Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón

Now that my mouth has been relieved of the parched feeling I had from holding my breath for ninety minutes, it's time to hunker down and discuss what may very well be the best science fiction film I've ever seen.  I must say, though, that tagging Gravity with the nomenclature of "science fiction" feels slightly inaccurate to me.  This is a "science reality" film in the sense that every aspect of it could happen right now as I type this.  There are no man-eating aliens or spaceships "light-speeding" through the galaxy or ominous Death Star vehicles roaming the atmosphere above Earth in Alfonso Cuarón's brilliantly directed film.  Instead, a seemingly innocent NASA mission to fix an issue with the Hubble telescope turns horribly wrong when a Russian satellite is hit by a missile, gets shattered to pieces, and sends chunks of debris rapidly hurtling towards spacewalking astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) along with the rest of the crew aboard the spaceship.  Not only does the debris create havoc, but it also halts all transmissions from the astronauts to Mission Control.  Broken off from the rest of mankind, not everyone survives and those that do have any incredibly tough road ahead to try and find a way home.

Moreso than anyone else, Gravity lives and breathes on the vision of Alfonso Cuarón.  As director, Cuarón gives the vastness and openness of space a more claustrophobic feeling than I've ever seen before on film.  With stunning cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezski, Cuarón's camera is constantly spinning, moving around the landscape smoothly and rapidly which, coupled with some exquisite long takes (including an astonishing opening shot that lasts for well over ten minutes) and more than adequate use of 3D, creates a palpable tension that kept me precariously hanging on the edge of my seat the entire ride.  As a co-writer (along with his son), Cuarón eschews the spiritual tone that I somewhat expected to see here and instead focuses his film on the fight to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles both physical and emotional in nature.  We're hit in the gut with overarching theme of man (and in this case woman) versus nature and I must credit the Cuaróns with keeping things simple while still managing to create a nonstop feeling of unease for the audience.

Along for the ride is Sandra Bullock who carries the movie on her shoulders and does so with believability.  A scientist on her first space mission, Ryan Stone has certainly not adjusted to the gravity (pun not intended) of the scope of her work.  As the film begins and she's fixing an electronics panel on the Hubble telescope, you can hear the nervous tension in her voice despite attempts to appear strong to her colleagues.  We know -- just because of the basics of storytelling -- that she'll overcome this jittery anxiousness, but we're never assured she'll escape the hell that space has become for her.  Bullock brings her character's desperate longing for companionship, courage, and will to survive front and center in what is probably the best work I've seen from her.

In this technologically savvy age, one of the greatest compliments I can give a movie is if I never look at my phone once to see how much time is left.  Gravity receives this (perhaps ignominious) distinction.  This is an eighty-five minute roller coaster ride from start to finish and I never longed for it to end.  I can only hope that the unbridled success of this unique vision brings us more smart, expertly acted, and exquisitely directed films in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  A

2 comments:

  1. So, I don't know how to talk about this movie without using the word best but I am going to try.
    I don't think edge of my seat is the correct term for what I was experiencing. I was more on the verge of tears from the tension. When the shit goes down and the music is swelling and she's sent flying through space, helpless, I've never felt what it made me feel.
    When I left the theater, I don't know if "forgotten how to breathe" is the right terminology but I was pretty much manually breathing for 15 minutes. It was bonkers. In other words, I almost died.

    I think that this will be one of those movies that will be around for decades. It's completely different from 2001 but it's the only comparison I can make.

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  2. I remember reading your Facebook post that said something of the sort about not breathing while watching it and I thought you were just being overly enthusiastic. At some point in the middle of the movie, I found myself with my throat completely dry and I realized, like I said in my review, that I don't think I'd been swallowing at all for several minutes. It was like I was so caught up in stuff that my hypothalamus forgot to tell my involuntary nervous system to keep doing what it needed to do.

    It doesn't try to be deep or anything, but it's such an insanely well-directed film that does what movies so often try to do -- entertain through big budget special effects -- but fail. It's NOT all spectacle.

    I loved it...and can't wait to watch it again.

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