Gravity - you know the story already, it's a classic disaster movie, but in space. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are astronauts making adjustments to the Hubble Space Telescope when an exploded satellite sends high-velocity debris into orbit and right into their direction. In an astonishing opening scene that takes about 10 minutes, we see a slow reveal of a vista of Earth from space, then the tiny space craft comes into view and slowly gets larger until we see Sandra Bullock's face through her helmet visor. A report of potential danger comes in, then everything goes to hell when debris from the explosion rains in on the shuttle. Bullock and Clooney are each thrown off into space, their fate uncertain...
I have to say, I did predict how the film would end long before having seen it, but that doesn't matter. Also, despite claiming to have scientific accuracy, there are a number of moments that are definitely wrong - mainly stuff involving momentum and the actual orbit of the international space station. This doesn't matter either though, because Gravity has two things that stand out so brightly that all criticism is rendered muted, 1) outstanding visual effects and 2) a genuinely human story. It's a trope that goes back so far I'm not sure anyone could claim to have invented it, but Sandra Bullock's character here is the classic everyman (woman?). She's a normal woman, sent up into space as a technical specialist, not as a hot-shot pilot. She lost her daughter at a young age in a meaningless accident; she's no hero, doesn't understand what's going on and is just desperately trying to stay alive in an environment that's trying to kill her. She's there as the audience's guide on this awe-inspiring journey through space, we discover the mechanics of space travel with her, we're literally inside her helmet experiencing her low oxygen and via the power of 3D we feel the nausea that she does as the world spins around her in zero-gravity.
It's not rocket science, but it works. Throw into this set up some of the most impressive visuals anyone's ever seen inside a movie theatre, add in dramatic highs and lows, repeated metaphors for birth, pregnancy and the circle of life and you've got yourself a winning formula.
It's edging dangerously close to being the perfect film. At only 90 minutes long, it packs in a gripping story, with two character arcs that are introduced organically and flower to conclusion without any flash-backs or inner monologues or any other tropes of bad story-telling. I'm now much less upset that Steve McQueen didn't win the Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, Alfonso Cuaron clearly deserves it for Gravity. After making one of the most interestingly directed films in recent years (Children of Men) and saving the Harry Potter franchise (HP3), there's no reason anyone should be surprised to see the Mexican director walk away with the top prize. It's a real shame I didn't see this last year, as I think it would have been my top film of 2013.
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