"Gravity" is the kind of movie that restores your faith in movie making. I go to a lot of movies, I try to avoid the bad ones, am pleasantly surprised by some, but most of the time, I'm left a bit jaded. The reason I keep the faith, the reason I still haunt the multiplexes and the occasional art house is because I know there is a film out there that will transcend all my expectations and completely take me away; "Gravity" is first film to do this to me in a long time.
Where to begin? First off this is a film about survival, about finding the courage and the nerve to live despite impossible odds, it's a moving and emotional film. I mean sure, it takes place in space, but it's really one giant metaphor about life, I found it inspirational and affirming, suffice it to say I was moved to tears more than once.
It's strange how our outside life can sometimes reflect what's going on in a movie, even if that movie is about something you can't possibly fathom, for instance: astronauts who are stranded in space trying to find a way back home. In this case they are played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, who are not just actors, but real blue blood movie stars who are easy to relate to. Bullock's character Ryan Stone is a science officer, a rookie with only six months of official astronaut training under her belt, while Clooney's Captain Matt Kowalski is the laid back senior officer on the verge of of breaking the record of longest space walk. Clooney's charming charisma and sense of humour come in handy particularly through the most intense parts of the film There's a reassurance in his character, and when he disappears through long passages as we follow Bullock's character, we hope to see him again soon; there's a moment where he does return late in the film that certainly gave me a calming reassurance.
But the film mostly focuses on Bullock's character who must overcome impossible odds like losing the rest of her crew, running out of oxygen,and dodging flying debris from a satellite among other things. All of these are more or less her trials that she must face as if she is earning the right to make it home, and believe me when I say her troubles don't let up for one second.
"Gravity" is a very straight forward film, clocking in at only 90 minutes! 90 minutes you say? Yes that's all the film needs, that's really all most films need; how refreshing to see a movie begin and end when it is supposed to. How confident the director Alfonso Cuaron must've been in the kind of story he wanted to tell without spelling it out for us. I'm surprised and delighted that there wasn't a twenty or thirty minute prologue watching Clooney and Bullock go through special training at Cape Canaveral before entering space, or lingering on multiple endings that has become the norm in a Hollywood movies. Instead, we are plopped in right when the movie should start, and we learn about the characters through their action and their sparse but clever dialogue, that is what a movie should do and that's what this does so very well.
I was blown away by the look of the film, when I say the movie is in space, that's hardly an understatement, because every frame of this film looks authentic, yet it's all computer generated, right up to the last star in the galaxy that we get to see. We've seen space done very well before from "2001" to "Apollo 13", but dare I say "Gravity" is starting up a whole new ball game, everything down from flames coming out of bad wiring to floating tear drops look one hundred percent real.
Part of this magic can be attributed by director Alfonso Cuaron collaborating with his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki as well as his special effects supervisor Tim Webber all of whom seem to be creating a fully three dimensional mis en scene. The first shot seems to go on forever but never draws attention to itself (I'm actually not sure when the first cut happens), there's a purpose for every camera move in this film. There is always something to look at, I'm not sure how much the 3-D adds to the film, I would like to see it in 2-D to see if has made much of a difference. I personally could not tell if it indeed added an extra dimension or if the filmmakers just did it naturally. In fact all technical elements seem to come together effortlessly including sound design by Glenn Freemantle and a terrific score by Steven Price that blends a muted melancholy but also blaring emotional tones that are at once cathartic and visceral.
But the real star in my mind surprisingly turns out to be Bullock, in a role I would not have pictured her to play before seeing this. I have always liked Bullock mostly as a gifted comedienne, she has a good natural charm in all of the roles she inhabits which is why she is so loved, but she is asked to do something in "Gravity" that she has never been asked to do before. The majority of the film is mostly a one woman show for Bullock, she is our way into the story, a novice astronaut caught in an extraordinary situation. Cuaron's camera even seamlessly moves into Bullock's space suit where we the audience become her eyes. I haven't felt this closely connected with a character for a long time, at times it's like an out of body experience. Along with her fighting for her life, there is a sadness Bullock brings to the character of Ryan Stone, her last name may be a clue as to how she deals with it. Stone's personal tragedy has turned her into a rock, going through the motions of every day life, not really living, but this current life or death emergency is her way to break free. There is a scene where Stone is shown in a quiet moment of tranquility floating in a space station after getting out of her space suit and breathing new air. Her character is going through a dramatic rebirth and for me this was one of the most moving moments of the film.
One could say that by the climax of the film it goes for broke on the emotional scale rising the music up to eleven, but by that time, I had already lost it, I knew I would be with this movie till the very end. It's one of those moments where my heart was swelling and I could feel the tears come, not just because I had gone through the ringer with Bullock and Clooney, but because I knew I was seeing one of the best movie experiences I had ever seen.
On a personal level, most movies today do leave me jaded, some I like, some I don't. The day I saw "Gravity", I was not having a good day, I was feeling a bit worn down by the daily routine, for the life of me, I wanted to see a good movie. I had high hopes, I had high expectations, and what a surprise to find a movie that exceeded all of those for me; it was able to take me to a new place, make me experience wonderful feelings if only for 90 minutes, and like Bullock's character I felt like I was experiencing a tremendous rebirth from a day that was full of disappointment and sadness. "Gravity" was like oxygen for my soul, so call that my recommendation.
No comments:
Post a Comment