Gravity
Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Rating: 5/5
Gravity is a movie that has been lighting up the festival circuit in recent weeks: to say that there is a lot of excitement surrounding this film would be an understatement.
I have been a fan of director Alfonso Cuaron ever since he delivered the fantastic Children Of Men, but with Gravity, he really has excelled himself. All the hype surrounding this film is totally justified, as it is a movie experience that you will not forget in a hurry.
Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring.
But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone - tethered to nothing but each other and spiralling out into the blackness.
The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth... and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
The look of this movie is simply mesmerising – I promise you that will not see a more beautiful looking film hit the big screen this year. The director really has captured the vastness, emptiness and eeriness of space, and yet it is stunningly beautiful at the same time.
This is a technical and special effects tour de force as Cuaron shows us the type of visual and emotional journey that film has the potential to take you on - this truly is a triumph.
Cuaron may depict wonderfully the vastness of space, but this is an intimate and personal movie that is character driven and is as moving as it is exciting.
The central performance by Sandra Bullock is the driving force behind the film - it is really great to see another strong female character in the sci-fi genre. Bullock gives a strong yet emotional performance as Ryan Stone.
As much as this is a film about being trapped in space, this is, for the character of Stone, a story about accepting and coming to terms with events of the past and being strong enough to move forward with here life.
Some of the film’s most emotional moments are when Stone is thinking about the loss of her young daughter - Stone curling up ready to die and looking forward to seeing Sarah again being a scene that really stands out. You really don’t expect scenes like this in a sci-fi film and yet they play so beautifully.
Clooney is also terrific as Kowalski - he really does deliver all of the comedic moments in the film. Sadly, there is not as much of the actor in this film as you would expect. Clooney and Bullock make a great on screen team and it would have been fantastic to see them share even more scenes together.
Gravity is a fast-paced film where the action and the danger really comes thick and fast: you never have time to catch your breath before we see these characters plunged into another life or death moment.
The danger that lurks around every corner really does make Gravity breathtakingly tense: this movie really will have you on the edge of your seat because you never know what is coming next.
Gravity may be a movie that is set in the middle of the great mystery that is space, but this is a very human story that looks at life, loss, death, loneliness and salvation: these are the qualities that really set this movie apart from any other science fiction film.
James Cameron has already called Gravity the ‘best space movie ever made‘, and it is really hard to argue with a statement like that as this is just one of the best films that I have ever seen in this genre.
Gravity is shows off what a fantastic director Cuaron is, and he really has set the bar incredibly high for any film of this ilk to follow.
Gravity is a movie that mixes beautiful special effects with a powerful and human story, and it is a movie that is absolutely not to be missed.
Tagged in Sandra Bullock