Review – Gravity

A team of astronauts are making adjustments to the Hubble Telescope when they are hit by an expanding cloud of speeding satellite debris. In the ensuing chaos, medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) must fight for their very survival in the airless and hostile environment of space.

Gravity is a film of technical and dramatic precision. Alfonso Cuarón, already known for his detailed and ambitious imagination, employs every conceivable hack and rig to simulate the weightless conditions of Low Earth Orbit. The effort is not wasted, and with the aid of his masterful employment of 3D effects it makes for an incredibly immersive experience. The plotting, likewise, is wonderfully lean: the film spends only a handful of minutes trying to establish for us what it is to be a jobbing astronaut before throwing the cast into the shit. Watching it all, you feel like you’re on rails, following the heroes into the thick of it and right in amongst the destruction. It’s exhilarating, gorgeous, and absolutely terrifying.

Sandra Bullock delivers an outstanding performance that will humble (if not silence) her detractors, and might easily set her up for an Academy Award. Not only does she perform all the complicated physical feats required of her, but she sells the threadbare character development and allows the audience to invest, completely, in her plight. Which is no small feat considering that never, at any moment, do we feel that she is safe – you want to pull yourself out of the on-screen action, but thanks to her gripping performance you can never quite manage it.

Gravity is clockwork cinema: it is elegant and functional to the smallest detail and, taken whole, it is no less of a work of art. See this on the big screen, the biggest you can find, and don’t skimp on the 3D glasses. You will be awed, stunned and humbled by what is probably the film of the year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KJHRF6RlTQ&w=400]