"Gravity," Alfonso Cuaron, Film Review
A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.
For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
A tough one to score. I've erred on the side of generosity. It has two standout plus points – 1) the use
of existing technology and 2) the bizarre scene of a random cross-language
communication between space and Earth.
Overall it's more thoughtful than it strictly needs to be.
The film sets its technology within current
day boundaries and this is a strength and refreshing after countless space
films with AI computers, ray guns, space ships like souped-up cars, Earth
destroyed by nuclear bombs etc etc.
Okay, the Chinese space station doesn't exist yet, but the technology is
all based on the current International Space Station and Hubble Space
Telescope, which do exist. The scenes
showing the tiny space pod hurtling back to Earth does a great job of
demonstrating the physical reality of that process.
Another effective and unusual scene is when
the Bullock character has all but given up hope, then receives a random radio
signal from Greenland in a language she doesn't understand. Instead of making her give up completely (as it
could have done, a final nail in the coffin) it makes her relate on a primal
human level, working purely on names, sounds of dogs and babies. She starts howling herself in response.
The development of character in empty space
is all the more necessary. Clooney's
with his rambling and repetitious stories, but he suddenly snaps to "That's an
order," commanding Bulluck's character to stop work when the mission is
aborted.
Plot is driven by the idea of chain reactions
of space debris collisions causing millions more particles to be created in an
explosive escalation of trouble.
The remaining plot drivers or one problem
after another is standard Star Trek stuff.
And the chain reaction taking out all the satellites is a suitably
spacey equivalent to the teens lost in woods finding their mobile signal has
gone.
Bullock's character's loss of her one child
in an arbitrary playground accident leads her to reflect on the purpose of life
from the rare perspective of seeing Earth in all its glory in space – and her final decision that, yes, it is worth carrying on with seems
convincingly hard-won.
Visuals are great, of course, with moon in
background, huge Earth and iconic shots of Clooney and Bullock's faces in their
space helmets. Both characters talk
about blue eyes, both turn out to have brown eyes, and the subsequent close-ups
of, say, Bullock's brown eyes, along with her slender and vulnerable body when
out of the clunky spacesuit give a good visual and physical sense of frail
humanity in space.
Personal
Score: 7/10
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