Gravity premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this week.
It sounds like a simple premise: Two astronauts Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) take part in a seemingly routine spacewalk in deep space, and then disaster upends their jokey banter. As you can glean from the trailer, Gravity is a survival story in the same vein as James Franco’s 127 Hours.
What seems like a ho-hum idea takes a turn for the better thanks to three critical factors: Director Alfonso Cuarón wanted to be an astronaut when he was younger, so he lets his attention to detail shine in almost every scene; the visual beauty of seeing Earth from the POV of the spacewalkers is a dazzling add-on, thanks to 3D technology (this reviewer saw the film in 3D); and Bullock makes up for some terrible film choices by conveying the angry desperation of trying to find life in an environment built to quash any such thing.
Although Gravity is a nifty two-hander, “space” becomes the third character we revel in seeing in all her wondrous glory. There’s almost an elegant approach to those views of sunsets cresting over Earth, or the splatter of stars backgrounding the astronauts’ mission.
What makes Gravity truly remarkable, too, is the action and drama reeling in your attention. Taking place entirely in space, Gravity doesn’t relent in showing the challenges the characters endure in trying to survive, so this is the type of movie you don’t want to leave for a pee break; you’ll likely miss a key moment of struggle that’ll inform the character far beyond anything Earth could offer.
If there’s any fall movie you should see in 3D, it’s Gravity…especially if you’ve always had a quiet love affair with space and its eye-popping mysteries.
