Gravity is the movie that film lovers, science-fiction lovers and space lovers had been awaiting for a long, long time, even if it takes place in a galaxy not so far away. Director Alfonso Cuarón has created a space odyssey that is both a piece of technical virtuosity and buckle-your-seatbelt, grip-the-armrest visceral excitement.
Simultaneously, Gravity awed and thrilled us. A marvelous 13-minute opening shot begins with a graceful float toward a space shuttle. It ends with a chaotic crash of debris that slingshots a rookie engineer, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), out into the abyss of space.
As the oft-marooned and determined Dr. Stone, Bullock is gripping. Her every-woman appeal captured audiences as she played a character both fragile and strong, making the moments of terror felt even deeper. As Dr. Stone faces a shortened air supply and a small window of time for survival, the viewer’s breaths become just as shallow as hers. George Clooney also gives terrific supporting work as wry, but protective veteran astronaut Kowalski, trying to keep Dr. Stone calm on her perilous maiden voyage.
Innovative cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezski, Cuarón’s partner in developing stunning long takes, is working at peak form. Here, his camera dances around the actors, fluid and free, making the audience feel as weightless as the characters bouncing around 300 miles above the earth. However, Lubezski’s camera also whisks us into Dr. Stone’s perspective, spinning and tumbling as the astronaut encounters life-or-death challenge after life-or-death challenge.
Its epic moments of carnage are thrilling, but Gravity achieves greater depth because it is also a gripping, intimate struggle of a woman fighting the unpredictable elements of space. Gravity is a film of such magnificent technical mastery that it could not have been made five years ago. 50 years from now, it will remain a high point for the science-fiction genre. It breaks through the possibilities of what filmmaking can do and is an operatic achievement in cinema that doubles as a breakneck roller coaster ride.
