220 miles above the earth,
without any oxygen or atmosphere, life in space is impossible. Thus, the stage
is set for the latest film from director Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity. Best known
for films such as Children of Men, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuaron hasn’t been in
the director’s chair for seven years. When this movie was announced, everyone
got hyped. We followed all the big news on the project, waited impatiently when
it went through development limbo, and for many, the wait was justified.
Gravity is far and away one of the best received films of the year (arguably over
the also raved 12 Years a Slave). It earned universal acclaim from the Venice
and Toronto International Film Festivals, has so far raked in almost 300
million dollars in box office revenue from strong word of mouth (including breaking
the record as the strongest October opening in history), and has even earned
praise from director James Cameron as the best space film ever made. This movie
sure has a lot of standards to meet, and I’m satisfied to say it met all
requirements. Gravity is not only a masterfully directed and acted piece of
extraordinary cinema, it accomplished what no movie, not even any horror movie
in at least the last ten years has been able to do… it genuinely terrified me.
On a mission in orbit, a team
of specialists take a shuttle to repair a damaged satellite. It’s here where we
meet the two main characters. Kowalski (George Clooney) is a charismatic veteran
who delights in wisecracks, telling stories about Mardi Gras and exes, and
listening to Hank Williams Jr. while staring at earth, while Ryan Stone (Sandra
Bullock), a doctor and team rookie, tries her hardest to keep her meals down in
the taxing zero-G’s. Sounds pretty routine, but it isn’t long until disaster
strikes. Debris from a broken satellite and everything in its path that was hit
strikes the shuttle, breaking communications with mission control, and leaving
both Stone and Kowalski drifting through space, trying their hardest to survive
and make it safely back to the planet.
More of a survival thriller
than straight up science-fiction, Gravity is an intense ride that puts every
emotion through a workout. Through his direction, as well as his screenplay
(co-written by his son Jonas), Alfonso Cuaron works to quickly establish a
tangible sense of intimacy with the characters. It’s a film that puts an
unusual feeling of involvement in the experiences of the characters, sometimes
literally thrusting into their viewpoint with first-person shots through their
helmets (Some of the best work Emannuel Lubezki has ever done, and will surely
go down as the year’s best achievement in photography), and it makes the
frightening sequences all the more nerve wracking. Cuaron understands that investment
in character is necessary to make the terror tactics of a movie work. It wreaks
havoc with my vertigo, my claustrophobia (even in the vastness of space, it feels
frighteningly closed in), and even the sound (or lack thereof) can make an
impact. What we don’t hear in the movie can often be more unsettling than what
we can hear (this aspect is well handled by Glenn Freemantle), and the
emptiness can further enhance the bleakness of the surroundings. I’m not
usually one to review the 3D of a movie unless I feel it justifies the writing
space, but even the use of 3D works to enhance the mood of the film, making
those views of earth all the more impressive, and the cold, loneliness of space
all the more striking. I don’t know what this movie did, or how it did it, but
more films need to do it. This is a film that justifies an inflated IMAX 3D
ticket.
Of course, terror is not the
only thing that makes Gravity work so well. It’s mainly with the storyline of
our main character Ryan Stone. This is where the aforementioned intimacy comes
into play. Much of the film is shot in Cuaron’s signature long takes (which he
and co-editor Mark Sanger are smart to let linger), and the equal
weightlessness of the camera movement works to help us see, and experience, the
trauma of the character’s situations, and follows her on her quest to find the
will to survive, and rebirth (one shot in the film visually referencing this).
Much like helping us experience what she sees from her view in her helmet, it
puts us right into her emotional state. When she feels scared, I felt scared.
When she felt sorrowful, I felt sorrowful. It’s a strong and empathetic
character, and one that grants Sandra Bullock a remarkable performance. With
Gravity, Bullock is finally given a chance to put her talents fully on display
with a role that requires great strength emotionally, physically,
intellectually, and she handles them all incredibly well. Not once does she
feel false, and not once does she hit a dull note. As far as I’m concerned, not
only is it the best work of her career, it’ll probably go down as the best
performance in any film of 2013. Of course, some well deserved attention ought
to go to George Clooney, excellent in a role that, while it may feel like
Clooney doing an impersonation of himself, still feels every bit as believable
as Bullock’s character.
Only time will tell if Gravity
will be considered among the greatest movies of all time, but from the road it’s
on, it looks well on its way. Nowadays, movies may not always be of the best
quality, or tell the best stories, but when films like this appear, it’s like a
breath of fresh air. I have a feeling this is going to be a film that people
are going to praise and remember for many years to come. If it hasn’t been made
glaringly obvious by now, I will be genuinely shocked to see a movie this year that
is better than this one.
***** / *****
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