Beyond all Gravity

A film with two actors and then only one for almost half its running time should spell disaster. But Gravity defies movie-town logic for its choice of subject and its astonishing special effects.
 

This is not a sci-fi movie because this is not fiction, not in the sense of having an alien predator or an undersea-city or a future peopled by killer androids. Gravity is fiction to the extent of telling a non-real-life story but it is as real as real can get within the four borders of a sheet of white stretched taut in the black void between four walls.

If one must pigeonhole Gravity into a genre, then it’s at worst a ‘disaster’ movie, a popular Hollywood staple. What propels director-producer Alfonso Cuaron’s creation beyond clichés and into the cinematic exosphere is its SFX and atmospherics.

For you or I, who can’t afford a Virgin Galactic ride into space (still in the future), Gravity is the closest we will ever get to the deep, dark void. The cold, distant sunrise from way up above, the hulking canvas of Earth (don’t miss the reference to Ganges), and the black mystery beyond feel all too real. It’s strange, because how do we (the audience) know what it feels like in space. We don’t and yet, we do feel.

Gravity could have been even more real if it would have made us listen to the stultifying silence of space. An oversight, perhaps. But happily it doesn’t lessen the impact of the story, told entirely through the eyes of two space-walking astronauts, Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock). Equally at ease in comedy and drama, Bullock appears to always leave a lasting impression in dramatic roles. Clooney is the comic relief here.

The script, by Alfonso and son Jonas Cuaron, however, does deploy a number of clichés – especially that of the self-sacrificing hero and the all-conquering, all-American hero.

Why does the hero have to overcome all adversities all the time? Why can’t he (male as opposed to female) be shown to be scared stiff? Can’t he/she be shown fighting a losing battle, and perhaps leaving it to another – a Chinese, may be – to save their day?

But none of these disturbing questions pop up when Gravity is playing out in stark 3D, spreading its unique brand of cold horror around your heart, making you clench your fists and hold your breath, much the same way, I guess, Stone and Kowalski would have in the terrifying, endless void of outer space.

Gravity is a must-watch. Your time and money both will be well-spent contemplating the place of man in the vastness that is the universe, and the technological marvel that is Gravity.

Score: 9/10