Film Review: Gravity

Gravity   8/10
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris
Plot: a tragic accident leaves a medical engineer and astronaut out in space, alone.

It’s difficult to find an adjective a newspaper, magazine or blog hasn't yet used to describe Gravity; but here’s a start, unique.

Following the space antics of Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), Gravity thrusts its audience into the abyss. To begin with, the most impressive aspect of this film is its visual effects. As impressive as the performances are, Gravity presents audiences with effects unlike any they’ve seen before. As a viewer, I didn’t once question whether the events were really occurring in space; the effects are so seamlessly put together, that there doesn’t seem to be one, poorly established or unfinished shot – it all looks so real. In addition, the 3D here is phenomenal. So many films have tried and failed to achieve what Avatar did in 2009, which was a cinematic experience like no other. Gravity continues this ‘must see in cinemas’ hype, which is an occurrence all too rare.

Though its effects are top-notch, it’d be an incredibly thin piece of cinema if its acting didn’t stand up to the mark also. Thankfully, it does. George Clooney does what he does best here, which is… George Clooney. He’s utterly charming as Matt; a character who assists Ryan from the get-go. The main star here though is Sandra Bullock. Her fairly turbulent (pardon the pun) yet – at times – phenomenally successful run in the genre of comedy has become only natural to her. Thankfully though, she has finally returned to the other job she does best; getting down and dirty in a role. Like in the Blind Side, we see Bullock transform into a completely different person, and Ryan is the perfect role for her. Her portrayal is utterly heartbreaking at times, yet steely and determined during others.

Whilst there is much to applaud in Gravity, there are flaws. Firstly, on entering the cinema, I hadn’t once heard how incredibly cliché and corny the dialogue was going to be. At first I considered it a mockery of other science-fiction films but it continued throughout. The painfully random, out-of-place Bullock line, “I hate space” seems forced and if anything, annoying. Unfortunately, such dialogue continues throughout; it seems as if Cuaron (director and writer) was too insistent on keeping these characters grounded (again, pardon the pun), whilst they seem (mainly Clooney’s character) a lot less grounded than they should.

In Conclusion: Gravity’s running time of 90 minutes has become so very rare in today’s cinema, yet it fits its time comfortably and its pace doesn’t falter once. Sandra Bullock is the one to note here, stealing the show throughout, spinning alongside the flawless graphics. Cuaron has crafted a very technically complex film here and you wouldn’t think it had taken so long to make – a real masterpiece in filmmaking.