Warner Bros. Pictures |
My
long-standing appreciation for Alfonso Cuarón began with A Little Princess, a gorgeous film that captivated me when I was a
tyke. I was at this time completely
unaware that he’d directed it, but years later, when I saw and loved Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
so much more than the Chris Columbus outings that had preceded it, I investigated. It was then that I discovered the man who’d
been responsible for one of my favorite childhood films; I dug deeper,
exploring his work from the steamy Y tu
mamá también to the thoughtful Children
of Men.
Well,
in Gravity, Cuarón has a
heart-stopping triumph. The
expansive-yet-intimate film follows Dr. Ryan Stone, a biomedical engineer on
her first NASA mission. A freak accident
results in Ryan detaching from her craft, and she’s flung dizzily through
space, careening upside down and sideways in zero gravity. Her attempts to save herself and return to
Earth propel the film, packed with suspense, fear, and drive.
I don’t
think I’ve ever seen a film that so well captures the enormity and yet the
paradoxical claustrophobia of space.
When Ryan initially detaches, she tumbles away with the dazzling
universe stretching out infinitely in every direction. At the same time, however, she’s trapped
within her spacesuit, hyperventilating in her helmet and gravely aware that
it’s the only thing separating her from the deep freeze, lack of oxygen, and
crushing pressure of the vacuum. The
camera deftly, effortlessly, shifts perspective to expose these two at-odds
qualities. I tell you, if Emmanuel
Lubezki hadn’t finally won an Oscar
for his cinematography here, I might have had to hit someone.
Aside
from exciting, terrifying, and massive, space looks stunning in this film. Just
incredibly beautiful. The effects work
is tremendous – I don’t know how they mimicked zero-gravity movement so
wonderfully and strikingly, but it’s a definite home run. If there’s a fault to be found with the
movie, it’s that the story is on the thin side, and some of the dialogue
(though, truth be told, there’s not much of it) is rather on-the-nose. Still, the premise is gripping, and the film
succeeds emotionally where it doesn’t always work practically.
A lot
of credit for that goes to Sandra Bullock’s performance as Ryan. It’s her story through and through, and while
we only get snatches of what Ryan’s life
is like, we’re given a complete window into the woman herself. Bullock portrays the heroine’s emotions so
completely that one can’t help but be moved.
Her panic and terror had me on edge, her loneliness and exhaustion made
me ache for her, and I cheered at her bravery and determination. A fantastic performance to match a great
character.
Warnings
Brief strong
language, and intense suspense and
frightening situations.
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