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Gravity
| Released |
7 November 2013 |
| Director |
Alfonso Cuarón |
Starring
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Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen, Phaldut Sharma, Amy Warren, Basher Savage |
| Writer(s) |
Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón |
| Producer(s) |
Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
91 minutes |
| Genre |
Sci-fi, drama, thriller |
| Rating |
12A |
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Zero G-enius.
Despite the heavy weight of hype on its shoulders, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity shows no sign of obeying its own law by crashing to the ground. From the looks of things, this will be the film to convince even the staunchest opponents of 3D to don those uncomfortable glasses and to persuade even the most tight-fisted cinema patron to shell out those extra few euro to bask in the glow of the IMAX screen. Believe me, though your wallet may be a little lighter, it’s well worth it. Technically flawless and breathtakingly beautiful, Gravity leaves all other 3D efforts literally in the shade, finally giving credence to those claims of “immersive cinema”.
Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, an academic on her first trip to outer space. Accompanying her, is veteran Matt Kowalski (George Clooney). During a routine space walk, they are hit by a shower of debris from a dismantled Russian space craft, which severely damages their craft and leaves them stranded. Without communication to Houston and with their oxygen running low, they must try to find their way to safety.
Though it’s clad in the sheen of modern, high-tech filmmaking, at its heart Gravity feels almost old-fashioned in its narrative simplicity. A lean ninety minute burst of adrenaline, precisely engineered to produce almost unbearable tension, its lineage can be traced through seventies disaster movies, to Saturday morning cliffhangers and right back to the moment when the Lumiere Brothers caused audiences to jump out of their seats to avoid an oncoming train. Cuaron has trimmed away every ounce of fat, leaving us with a breathlessly enjoyable and surprisingly moving experience. In another director’s hands we would doubtlessly have had numerous detours back to earth, checking in on worried relatives and frantic staff in Houston; instead Cuaron gives us the compelling simplicity of two people fighting for their lives.
It is testament to the quality of the script and the performances that poignant moments are created without recourse to this usual Hollywood schmaltz. Clooney gives us both barrels of roguish charm but really this is Bullock’s movie. She masters the extreme physical and emotional strain of the role without losing her vulnerability. Her performance makes sure that although Gravity is indeed a spectacle, it is never an empty one.
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Linda O’Brien |
