LEAD
CAST: Sandra
Bullock, George Clooney DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuaron
SCREENWRITER: Alfonso
Cuaron, Jonas Cuaron PRODUCER: Alfonso
Cuaron, David Heyman EDITOR: Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Sanger MUSICAL DIRECTOR:
Steven Price
GENRE: Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Science
Fiction, Fantasy CINEMATOGRAPHER: Emmanuel
Lubezki RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes DISTRIBUTOR: Warner
Bros. Pictures LOCATION: United States, United Kingdom, outer space.
Technical assessment: 4
Moral assessment: 4
MTRCB rating: PG 13
CINEMA rating: V 14
(Viewers aged 14 and up)
Two
astronauts Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a bio-medical engineer, and Matt
Kowalsky (George Clooney) a veteran flight commander, are the only survivors
during a mission to destroy an old Russian space station. With their spaceship imperiled by a
debris storm and the rest of the crew dying before their very eyes, the
stranded pair must squeeze their guts dry to survive 600 miles from Earth in
negative zero temperature as their oxygen supply runs out. They must bring their ship back to
Earth—but how in the face of such helplessness can they do so?
Rare
is the film that can take the viewer out of his orbit and paradoxically into
himself, and Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity
is such a rarity. Clooney handles
with finesse a happy-go-lucky character that under duress would shine with
unusual nobility; Bullock plays out with depth a character that’s is stone
outside and putty inside. The
chemistry between Bullock and Clooney is flawless, their acting solid, leading
the viewer to surmise that their career path must have prepared them for this
one obra maestra that will be
remembered for its power to hold the viewer spellbound for a full hour and a
half. Of course, Jonas Cuaron
takes a chunk of the credit for it, for the engaging script. Except for one negligible slip (see if
you can spot it), the editing is seamless; so is the dovetailing of CGI and
watertight cinematography—just the right elements to create the tension that is
so masterfully heightened by the pitch-perfect musical score.
Gravity is the story of Dr.
Stone—a woman that at first comes across as a toughie, almost like a covert
tomboy, what with a boy’s name and a “hard” surname, but as the cosmos compels
her would later on reveal her true tenderness. The impossibly composed Kowalski is an indispensable device
to effect this transformation.
To capture all the nuances enveloped in the basically two-character
film, the viewer must first free himself of the weight of his own
reasoning. Never mind that Stone
has an almost superhuman presence of mind, steering the ship and hitting the
right buttons without hesitation.
Isn’t weightlessness supposed to adversely affect brain functions and
alter judgment? But there she is
defying all odds and… well, accomplishing the impossible. Damned lucky? But that’s just it—Gravity
subtly instills in the viewer’s mind a truth costumed in sci-fi: that there’s
an eye in the sky that sees all and knows all and can do all. In Stone’s case, “all” is finally
standing naked before a mirror and confronting all that toxic baggage in her
bowels that’s preventing her from taking the flight to human fulfillment—grieving
over the loss of her child. Never mind that this all took place in a
hallucinatory state—let’s not doubt the power of The Eye to do that.
A
woman’s invincible maternal instinct is subtly underscored here, with
thoughtfully placed and timed images alluding to maternity: Stone, dressed down
to her underwear and curled into fetal position, swoons weightless inside the
spacecraft; defeated by frustration in an attempt to communicate with the
Chinese space station, she softly ululates, like a she-wolf who has lost her
pup; she hears a baby crying—a baby, in space with the Chinese astronaut?—but the
crying does revive her hope and will to survive; finally when her ship lands on
earth, plunging into the ocean, she’s home, back to the water-filled womb of
Mother Earth, eager to begin a new life, with her feet firmly planted on the
ground. You might think CINEMA is
reading too much into a mere movie, but it’s all right—blame it on those shots
of Earth viewed from outer space, they’re totally priceless and beautiful beyond
words. Detaching from Earth most
definitely alters human judgment, but oh, what an infinitely good, loving, and
beautiful Creator we meet out there!
