Gravity review

Don’t let go! Critics are labelling Gravity as ‘the greatest space film ever’ that has to be experienced in the full glory of IMAX 3D. But does it live up to all the hype? Those who are afraid of heights may wish to look away now… 

In an age where computer generated effects have made audiences cynical, here’s a film where we ask: how the heck did they do that? We know much of this had to be created in a computer, but not a single frame of this space adventure looks fake. If someone told you they shot on location, you’d believe them.

Gravity opens with astronauts installing new software to a satellite. After an amusing prologue in which George Clooney’s Matt Kowalski, a confident and composed veteran, shares anecdotes that mission control (voiced by Ed Harris) has already heard dozens of times, things go south.

Debris from another satellite destroys their ride home and knocks out communication with mission control. Rookie Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Kowalski are left adrift in space. And that’s it in terms of plot.

The film is remarkable not only for what it has — those amazing visuals — but what it doesn’t have. There is no villain. Surviving space is enough of an adversary. Bullock and Clooney don’t fall in love or kiss. There are no cut aways to what is happening on Earth. The action stays focused solely on how, and if, Bullock and Clooney will make it back to Earth.

This is definitely not a film for those with anxiety as things remain nerve-rackingly intense for much of the 90-minute runtime. Also, there is a lot of tumbling and spinning, often from a first-person perspective, so those with a weak stomach be forewarned.

Gravity is directed by Alfonso Cuarón, the man that brought visual splendor to such movies as The Little Princess, Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men. He brings an artistry to the proceedings. There is genuine beauty in both large moments — the views of Earth — and small — the way the camera focuses on a single tear drop floating in space.

Cuarón, who also co-scripted, has made an effects-heavy film with substance. In an affecting monologue, Bullock reveals that there is deep pain in her past that she has been running away from. Gravity becomes an allegory for learning how to let go of a tragedy. Bullock must choose if she gives up or if she fights on.

Alec Kerr