Movie review: Gravity - spaced out

Gravity strips you to a bare minimum and forces you to rethink your link with Mother Earth.

There are very few shots in Gravity that do not have the Earth in its frame; sometimes pale blue or dark, its ubiquitous presence both haunting and inviting at the same time. And it’s only in space, stripped of basic necessities like oxygen, sound and ground to walk on, that we are compelled to reassess our relationship with Mother Earth.

These reflections are intermittent however, as director Alfonso Cuarón, of Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too) fame, plugs fleeting scenes of calm between desperate efforts at survival and scenes of catastrophe. But at its heart, Gravity is a survival movie. Mission specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and mission commander Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are astronauts doing repair work when a storm of debris destroys their shuttle. What follows is quite predictable. The movie shows them meandering from one space station to another — placed rather conveniently close to each other — to ultimately find a capsule to make it back to Earth.



Although the movie’s plot is predictable, the visuals have enough impact to leave you spellbound. When the storm strikes, the audience watches on rather uncomfortably and helplessly as Bullock veers towards the darkness, spinning relentlessly, as the Earth, reflected on her helmet visor, appears to move with her. And to emulate this lack of any physical or metaphysical certainty, the camera work, deftly executed by Emmanuel Lubezki, is also free from similar physical grounding. The camera is part of the three dimensional framework that allows you to experience the Earth above, below or behind you as you too spin around like Stone and Kowalski, hanging on to handlebars, wires and anything you can hold on to for dear life. To experience this utter loss of control, 3-D is fundamental to Cuaron’s film, and it is brilliantly orchestrated.

The film is technologically well-equipped. The visuals are spectacular; easily the best use of 3-D since James Cameron’s Avatar. The debris storms in particular, are breathtaking. From the buzz of flies to the country music playing on Kowalski’s space suit, the sounds, and their lack thereof, complete the experience.

The movie will however not be remembered for its script. Clooney’s wisecracks and Bullock’s personal baggage do nothing to elevate the film. And with two likable, familiar characters, Cuaron should have known that the audience would empathise with the characters even in the absence of their rather clichéd back stories. Despite everything, the two put in worthwhile performances, especially Bullock with her portrayal of a distant and indifferent woman after facing a personal life tragedy.

In the end, Clooney’s yammering and Bullock’s heavy breathing are welcome sounds in an otherwise dark, weightless and infinite silence that make our meaningless and grounded lives a tad bit more bearable.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 10^th, 2013.