*** SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen the film, the final two paragraphs of this review will discuss the ending of the film in detail.You've been warned. ***
I must confess up front that I didn't quite grasp the transformative hype that Gravity was receiving in the run up to its release last weekend. The trailers lacked suspense and frankly, I just didn't get it. However, I am a fan of Alfonso Curan dating back to Y tu Mama Tambien and Prisoner of Askaban ranks as my favorite of the Harry Potter films. He is a visionary behind the camera and crafts ominous worlds that draw you into darkness in a way that I think offers a unique voice for film making. Through that prism I defied my own instincts and plunked down the full IMAX experience price to see a 90 minute film that in the advertising felt like it was little more than Open Water in space.
The Set Up: The film centers on astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) who are set adrift in space after a major accident detaches them from their space shuttle. It goes on to chronicle how the two work together as they search for a way to survive.
The Result: This film is meant to be seen in 3D and IMAX. If you don't see it in the theater in some form, the beauty and point is essentially lost. This is not a movie that will translate to DVD and small screen. All of the the optics and esthetics that make it special will simply not hold up. It was worth my time and money in the way seeing a special art exhibit is. In my opinion, if you're looking for an engaging film that offers deeper meaning, this isn't it.
The Good
This is unquestionably a visual masterpiece. What Curan and his director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki achieve is the equivalent of a large scale art installation that happens to use the cinema as it's vehicle and display. Hands down this is the best use of 3D technology certainly since the flight sequence in Avatar and I would argue ever. Curan and his crew have a clear objective to create a sensory experience that is almost completely isolating while still awe inspiring. I was grateful that the 3D was predominantly used to simulate depth perception that I imagine would mimic the limitlessness of outer space. As a result you are drawn into the world inhabited by the astronauts in a way that physically takes hold. Suspense is created through the absence of sound in key moments and a smart technique that literally offers the audience Stone's point of view. Three sequences that are a direct consequence to the tragedy at the core of the movie are mesmerizing. All drive the plot forward and serve as transitions for the movie to pivot towards its eventual conclusion.
The use and absence of sound throughout the film is brilliantly nuanced and lends an authenticity to the sensory experience that is haunting. I appreciated this in spite of a score that at times simply felt heavy handed and loud. In fact the sound techniques directly connected to the film are carried from the opening shot to the very final moment of the credits. It's a complete thread that will be missed by most, but for a geek like me was a flourish that marked the difference between tying a knot versus an artful bow on a gift.
The Bad:
Pretty much everything else. The script is mediocre at best and often feels trite when not being deliberately manipulative. Speaking of manipulative, there is a sequence with Bullock that marks the transition into the final third of the film that nearly made me laugh out loud it was so heavy handed. It smacks you over the head with obvious symbolism that is meant to add depth to Bullock's character and propel the viewer to the final portion of the film. To me it felt like a cut scene from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The attempts to round out the characters while they are in peril fall flat, perhaps because we have no context for them prior to arriving at this crisis. As an audience we are dropped into their story moments before disaster strikes and as a result we are given little to care about beyond the immediacy of the life and death situation. This makes for adequate suspense in the first third of the movie, but quickly wanes as we meander to its conclusion. The plot is extremely thin and quickly becomes horribly repetitive. The tactics and strategies employed to survive aren't new and they lack the urgency that movies like Apollo 13 so wonderfully captured. I am usually drawn to stories that revel in a solitary journey of physical and spiritual self. This film, for all it's visual splendor doesn't come close to achieving the emotional isolation that you would expect from a film like this and sadly the story never rises to meet the visual astonishment. The result kept me at arms length over the course of movie. While I remained curious about the outcome, I never became invested in it. There has been a lot of chatter about Bullock's turn as Ryan Stone being Oscar worthy. I just don't see it. She's fine with what little she's given and the same could be said for George Clooney. Both are hampered not by the logistics and technology, but by lack of fundamental storytelling. However lack of script doesn't change the fact that there is nothing extraordinary to be found in Bullock's performance. It isn't remotely in the same league as the work we saw from Adrian Brody in The Pianist or even James Franco in 127 Hours which is a shame, because Gravity offers the rare instance for a female voice was to be the one in extreme isolation and peril. It is a shame none of it was explored. Which is why after a final 60 minutes that carried a great deal of repetition the ending was simply infuriating and the final 5 minutes a waste of time.
***** SPOILER ALERT ********* SPOILER ALERT *****
***** SPOILER ALERT ********* SPOILER ALERT *****
The Ending:
Independent of the poor script the movie does actually take Bullock's character on a journey that is less about survival and more about acceptance and reconciliation.Viewers are left to draw the parallel between Stone losing her daughter and her efforts to survive this catastrophic event. The set up was clear but never quite gelled for me. From the moment she enters the second shuttle and recoils into fetal position it is as though for the back end of the film she is reborn with a determination to fight that feels out of character. Knowing she survived her daughter's death but ceased to really go on living makes her final push in the movie important. That is why I found myself hoping she would not survive the final act of the film. For me the strongest sequence is when she is pushing towards reentry to earth, surrounded by fire she finds peace. Having fought for survival her fate is no longer in her hands, she finds reconciliation in the knowledge that she will begin living again if she survives and she will have made peace with her life should she die in that moment. It is the most powerful moment of the film and needed nothing more to resonate. The film could have ended right there. I personally would have been fine with an ambiguous ending right at the point of re-entering the earth's atmosphere with the flames around her and then having all the sound coms, including Houston come back on as we fade to black. Her journey ended when she found peace, not when she survived the landing. That is why everything after re-entry pissed me off. The entire water escape was extraneous. Seriously a frog was the only living creature in that water? She went from perilous depths to waters so shallow she was quickly able to make her way to shore? Nope, it felt tacked on by the distributors of the movie. It was cheap and broke what little emotional resonance the film had managed to muster.
In the end, Gravity will be remembered for its cinematic achievements that are deserved and fantastic. The film will not go on to join the canon of movies that serve as a commentary for how we value life in the broad scope of the world and our small place in it.
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