Movie Review: Gravity

Gravity

As someone who actively avoids horror flicks I have imagined from time to time that my stay in the afterworld will involve an endless loop of creepy clowns, possessed children with long, wet hair, and murderous dolls. After experiencing Gravity, however, I realize that my afterlife will be an eternal, gnawing anxiety; that forever unsettling feeling that persists when safety is as fleeting and fragile as a whisper in a windstorm, and yet punctuated by brief moments of beautiful hope. That is what Alfonso Cuarón has given us with Gravity: a gripping, moving, and beautiful visual and emotional journey.

Gravity follows the story of specialist Ryan Stone’s (Sandra Bullock) first journey into outer space. For all intents and purposes her and her colleagues’ mission is simple: install new hardware on and make repairs to an orbiting telescope. But right from the beginning the movie is plagued with that feeling of “things aren’t going to go the way we want them to.” And things don’t even try to come close to what we want to happen. Stone’s health and vitals are constantly questioned by Mission Control and Mission Commander Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) jokingly relates a number of reasons as to why he has a bad feeling about the mission. An ominous series of jokes because no more than fifteen minutes into the movie and Control orders an emergency mission abort due to the debris field from a downed satellite morphing into an 20,000 mph orbiting debris cloud.

There are very few movies that have made me feel genuinely uncomfortable and unsafe as Gravity did. What Cuarón gives us is a modern take on a classic literary movement known as naturalism. For those of you who know nothing about naturalism: it was a literary movement prominent in the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries that was characterized in part by the belief that humanity is but a small speck in a vast, uncaring universe; the fate of one person, or a group of people, or even an entire country makes no lasting impact on the vast order of the cosmos. Naturalism in terms of the movie? The fact that billions of dollars of the most advanced scientific equipment was destroyed and countless lives were last has not the least bit of power to dim the shining stars or stop the spinning of the Earth for even a fraction of a fraction of a second. Despite all of our wonderful and amazing technology and innovations, despite all the hours of training and preparation the universe will have its way. That powerlessness is what truly unsettles the nerves; seeing Stone spin helplessly against the backdrop of black space, watching a fire casually devour the space station, learning that the laws of physics don’t make exceptions even though you really want someone to live.

While I don’t completely agree that Gravity is the type of film that redefines cinema I will agree that it is an experience worth going through. It is rare that a modern film so fully captures and brings to life the literary principles that are at the foundation of all movies. Not to mention one that does so while creating a charming and touching chemistry between its characters. Gravity is a must-see for the fall season.

Overall Rating: 9.0 out of 10