Ever since I was a little kid, I've always been fascinated by space. That infinite void we're floating around in that's all around us, yet so mysterious. For the longest time I wanted to be an astronaut. It was a dream of mine, until I looked into all the education and insanely high test scores you need to even begin towards this unique career and realized that it probably wasn't feasible. Even today I still have a desire to go to space, and see what our planet really looks like from out there. So when I saw the trailers for Gravity, a realistic film about astronauts working on a space station, I was naturally excited. When I saw that it was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, the man who brought us the excellent 2006 sci-fi picture Children of Men, I was even more intrigued. The hype for this movie was pretty huge, and now that I have seen it I can safely and confidently say that Gravity delivers and makes good on all of its promises. It's not only a visual and technical masterpiece, but a well written, emotional story with intriguing characters and almost too much suspense to handle.
Gravity almost exclusively takes place in space, as expected. It is the story of astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and their experience when their mission goes awry. Stone and Kowalski are working on the Hubble telescope, when ground control informs them that the Russians have performed an anti-satellite strike test that has inadvertently caused a chain reaction that may send debris their way. This "may" quickly turns into a "does" and our two protagonists are pummeled by satellite parts, sending Stone spinning off into space. Kowalski rescues her and tethers her to himself, as he is wearing a thruster pack that allows him to move freely. They return to their ship to find it almost completely obliterated by the debris, the rest of the crew dead or missing. Running low on fuel and air, Kowalski and Stone begin a tense journey to the International Space Station to retrieve an escape module and land on Earth. At this point it is revealed that Stone had previously had a daughter, who had died from a head injury. As they are approaching they realize that the one remaining pod's parachute has been accidentally deployed, making it useless for reaching Earth. However, Kowalski insists that it can still be used to reach a nearby Chinese station and acquire one of their escape modules. Landing on the ISS proves difficult, and ends in a heart-wrenching scene where Kowalski cuts himself loose and drifts into space to his death so that Stone can survive. After this Stone makes it into the ISS, detaches the pod by walking out into space to free its tangled cables, and points herself towards the Chinese station.....only to realize she's out of fuel. Here comes one of the most emotionally powerful scenes of the film. Just as Stone resigns herself to death, she hallucinates that Kowalski enters the pod. He tells her how to get a final boost of speed from the pod, convinces her to go on with her life, and then disappears. This motivates Stone to keep on living, and she eventually makes it to the Chinese ship, and lands one of their escape pods safely on Earth.
This is one of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen in a theater. In terms of both spectacle and subject matter, I can only compare it to (what else?) Stanley Kubrick's flawless masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I wasn't around to see that one on the big screen, but I imagine it would have felt something like this. Gravity is completely riveting from start to finish. The first shot alone lasts several minutes, and has the camera twisting and turning, ducking under appendages of the space station and rotating to give us a jaw-droppingly beautiful view of both our protagonists and the universe. I despise people that talk during movies, but there were several shots in this film that made me just gape in disbelief and say "wow" out loud. One particularly memorable shot is when Kowalski is pulling Stone to the International Space Station, you see them both head on with Earth in the background, and the sun is rising. It's so gorgeous. Another has the sun setting on one side of the planet, while we can see the Northern Lights forming on a whole other continent. Awe-inspiring. Cuaron uses the camera quite effectively to create or relieve tension, and to accentuate the beautiful view from up there. For a lot of the movie you can see Earth in the background, and this is comforting. The planet looms large for the majority of the story, and it sort of grounds us and keeps us mindful of where the action is taking place. The real terrifying scenes are the ones in space where you can't see Earth, and the universe is just a massive, endless expanse of stars. There are also several POV shots of Stone, which really emphasize her panic and how scary everything truly is for her.
But while this film is visually astounding, that's not all it is. Gravity has a very emotional and tense story which isn't entirely predictable, but packs a few surprises. The scenes where Stone is suffering, or trying desperately to reach anyone and communicate her situation, are totally heartbreaking. She's all alone up there, and the nearest people are six hundred kilometers below her. She's a very sympathetic character. It was also saddening to watch Kowalski die. He was a very likable character, and had he survived he would have been able to guide Stone to safety easily with his experience and expertise. Something I also noticed about Gravity was its symbols of infancy and rebirth. While working in space, the astronauts are always connected to the space station with cables that look very much like umbilical cords. There's one scene where Stone finally makes it onto the ISS and curls up into a fetal position in the tiny airlock, like a fetus in a womb. A Buddha statue is show on the Chinese station, which could be taken as a symbol of rebirth. When Stone lands on Earth she falls into a lake, and since she is unaccustomed to Earth's gravity she has to claw her way out of the water like some primordial being taking its first steps onto land. Gravity isn't a particularly thematically or philosophically complex film, but these motifs are interesting and definitely add to the experience.
I loved Gravity. It gave me everything I wanted and more. It's an emotional, gorgeously shot, well scripted and acted film, and it deserves to be seen by everyone. It's best viewed in IMAX 3D, this format makes the massive depth of field in space seem even bigger. This is one of the very best films of the year.
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