Gravity

MPAA/Content PG-13 [AC, AL, V]

Distributor Warner Bros.

Technical HD 65mm 2.40:1

Genres SCI THR ADV

Runtime 91 mins.

Country USA UK

Budget $100M

 

CAST

Sandra Bullock, George Clooney; voices of: Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen & Phaldut Sharma

 

CREDITS

Director: Alfonso Cuarón; Screenwriters: Alfonso Cuarón / Jonás Cuarón; Producers: Alfonso Cuarón / David Heyman; Director Of Photography: Emmanuel Lubezki; VFX Supervisor: Tim Webber; Production Designer: Andy Nicholson; Editors: Alfonso Cuarón / Mark Sanger; Costume Designer: Jany Temime; Music Composer: Steven Price

 

THE SYNOPSIS

Miles above the Earth floats Space Shuttle Explorer (Mission STS-157), where medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) and veteran astronaut Commander Matt Kowalski (Clooney) are in the midst of a spacewalk on the Hubble Space Telescope.  They are warned by Houston Command (voiced by Harris) that debris from a defunct satellite fired upon by a Russian missile is heading their way.

Minutes later, the projectiles smash into the Explorer, vaporizing it and the rest of the crew onboard—causing Stone and Kowalski to float away from the telescope.  Using their thrusters, they aim for the International Space Station a mere 900 miles away.  The goal is to reach the ISS before the debris slingshots around the Earth on its deadly orbit.

Along the way, Matt urges Ryan to tell him about herself (to keep her calm and focused so as not run out of oxygen).  Turns out that Ryan lost her daughter a short time ago and carries that pain with her.  They reach the ISS, but so does the debris projectiles—causing another explosion.  Ryan and Matt are about to be sucked into the darkness of space—but Kowalski saves her by detaching himself and drifting off into space towards certain death.  Before he disappears, Matt calmly relays to Ryan the details of what she must do next to survive.

She climbs into the ISS and into a Soyuz capsule—launching it before the whole station explodes.  Per Matt’s pre-death advise, she is to navigate the Soyuz capsule to a Chinese space station, Tiangong, a mere 100 miles away.  Reaching her limit, Ryan decides to power down the Soyuz and die peacefully.  Suddenly, Matt climbs into the capsule with her and scolds her for giving up.  The hallucinatory pep talk works, as Ryan gets her second wind.

Unable to dock the Soyuz with the Tiangong, Ryan suits up and uses a fire extinguisher to propel her over to the station.  Once inside, she launches the last escape module and heads towards Earth, though more debris compromises her trajectory.  Miraculously, Ryan makes it back to terra firma and crash lands in a lake.  She fights her way out of the ship and swims to safety.

 

THE CRITIQUE

Whenever you think you’re having a bad day, do yourself a favor and take a look at GRAVITY.  What Sandra Bullock goes through will make you appreciate the (most likely) un-severity of your own situation!  But seriously…this movie is exciting, intense, frightening, hopeful—I could go on to Infinity…AND BEYOND!!  But I shan’t.

Written by director Alfonso Cuarón and his son Jonás (himself a budding multi-hyphenate filmmaker), the screenplay and its structure are deceptively simple in the Classical Literature sense: (Wo)Man vs. Nature, (Wo)Man vs. Fate, (Wo)Man vs. (her)himself.  However, its themes are far more complex than that.

Maternity plays a big part of the structure: Dr. Stone is a mother who lost her child; she performs her maternal duties by repairing damages and coaxing her fellow astronauts to focus on the mission (like any mother would…clean up the boo-boos and have their child focus on the daily tasks); Stone plies her trade in the shadow of Gaia (Mother Earth), at first attached to the ship (like an umbilical cord)—but yearning to return home to Mama Earth… get it?  Man, I’m good!

Other themes surface as the movie progresses: the balance of light and dark (hope and desperation) prevalent in outer space; survival of the fittest vs. survival of the most resourceful vs. survival of the most faithful; rebirth through the crucible of death; and ultimately… the grand theme of Life itself.  Yes: breathing fresh air is good!

Directed with flair, poise and cojones the size of Skylab by Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban, Children Of Men), GRAVITY works more as science fiction that science fact.  No matter.  Cuarón plays up the human element as much as the fantastical celestial element with equal parts.  Even more so, he gets terrific performances out of his main actors.

Sandra Bullock buoys the entire movie on her lovely shoulders and she sells it with class, empathy and determination.  What can I say about George Clooney’s extended cameo?  The guy makes it all look too easy.  For such a limited role (originally to be cast with Robert Downey Jr.), Clooney imbues Matt Kowalski with levity, calm and (unfortunately) brevity—when he shuffles off into the darkness of outer space…my only complaint in this otherwise excellent movie—but I will elaborate further down the review.  Nevertheless, bravo to Clooney for taking a throwaway role (no-pun intended) and giving it the main character’s impetus for survival.  Oh, and it was great hearing Ed Harris representing Houston Control yet again (after doing so in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 [1995]).  If the shit ever hits the fan, you’ll surely want Ed Harris on the other end of the line to help!

Production values for this $100 million (boxofficemojo.com) US/UK co-production are upper stratum all the way.  Now get ready for the kudos, folks—because I’ve got plenty in my rocket pocket!

First and foremost, my hats off to the talented Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (Y Tu Mamá También, Sleepy Hollow, The New World, Children Of Men)—who has created a clean, super-realistic visual palette in his striking, HD-widescreen lensing.  95% of the production utilized the ARRI AlexaM high definition camera system for the celestial and capsule sequences while the remaining 5% (the final sequence on Earth) was actually shot at Arizona’s Lake Powell on 65mm film utilizing the workhorse ARRIFLEX 765 camera. 

Per American Cinematographer (November 2013 issue), veteran Kiwi cinematographer Michael Seresin (Midnight Express, Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes) stepped into the role when Lubezki had to leave.  The end result is seamless and flawless.  For the record, GRAVITY was conceived in 2D and later converted to 3D for exhibition.  As I understand it, the 3D version is very well-rendered.  Aiding the cinematographers in creating the celestial effects is veteran VFX Supervisor Tim Webber (Children Of Men, The Dark Knight, Avatar)—whom I mention in this review as one of the pillars of the GRAVITY production because of the praise heaped on him and his crew by both Cuarón and Lubezki.  From working on realistic wiring rigs to facilitating zero gravity replication to the CGI rendering of costume minutiae and the illusion of outer space, Webber gets a kudo too.

Edited with restraint by Cuarón and British cutter Mark Sanger (assistant editor on Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough & The Mummy), the movie clocks in at a brisk 91 minutes.  Utilizing long takes—the first shot alone is 13 minutes long (!)—the editors manage to use the infinite expanse of outer space to ratchet up the tension, which never lets up until the very end.  GRAVITY is rumored to contain something like 150 shots in its entire runtime.  Wow!

The rest of the technical credits are also top-shelf.  The realistic (and NASA-consulted) sets & costumes are courtesy of former architect-turned-production designer Andy Nicholson (The Host, Divergent) and veteran costume designer Jany Temime (Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban, Children Of Men, Skyfall), respectively.  The percussive and intensifying score is courtesy of British composer Steve Price (Attack The Block, The World’s End). 

You can obviously tell that I am a huge fan of GRAVITY.  If I had one gripe (besides some of the scientific inaccuracies evident in the movie; for a list that someone actually complied, please see them here), it has to be the way Clooney shuffles of his mortal coil.  In my opinion, he lets go way too easy. But then again, I’m sure that his Kowalski character isn’t from Jersey like I am!  No oxygen?  No problem.  You ever try to breathe the air in Jersey?  Fuhgeddaboudit…

All told, this should be the movie to beat at this year’s Academy Awards^® ceremony (with 10 nominations to boot).  Oh—and by the way: all of the production artisans listed in this review were nominated for an Oscar^®.  Whatever happens, GRAVITY still gets my vote as the best movie of 2013.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

GRAVITY sucks you in for frame one and doesn’t let go until the end credits.  Impressive for a movie that contains only two actors (albeit mega A-listers) and plenty of open space (no pun intended).  Technological aspects are groundbreaking and will become a harbinger of great filmmaking VFX to come.  The best film of 2013…I’d say hand down—but you may need those hands to prevent you from floating away into the æther!

 

 

IMDB:                    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/

Wikipedia:             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_(film)

Official Site:          http://gravitymovie.warnerbros.com/#/home