Review: Gravity

Posted by Anura Samara, 7 November 2013

We were at a bit of a loose end so we decided to head down to the cinema to see something.

As always seems to happen to me, I had heard the name of the movie but hadn’t bothered to really go past that and find out what it was about. The beauty of this approach is that I seem to be constantly surprised.

The first shock about this movie is that they killed off George Clooney. Yes, the big name star dies about half-way through the movie! And then Sandra Bullock has to carry off the remainder of the movie alone.

I think these sorts of movies – where a single character has to carry the majority of the movie alone – are pretty hard to pull off. For example, I found Castaway to be incredibly difficult to watch – the externalisation of what must have been a purely internal dialogue just looks ridiculous.

The best thing about this movie is the depiction of space – the vast emptiness, the magnificent views of the Earth and the remoteness of astronauts from each other, from their spaceships and from any help.

The next best thing to enjoy is the depiction of weightlessness. I don’t know how they achieved it, but film effects have moved on from the day when they could only manage short bursts of simulated weightlessness. Now, whole scenes are shown in (what appears to be) zero gravity.

Of course, I still found it frustrating to watch Sandra Bullock talk herself through various actions and processes. Does anyone actually do that when they are alone.

Surprisingly (for me, when I watch an American movie), I thought the ending was good. OK, it’s pretty cheesy to imagine that an inexperienced astronaut could get herself back to Earth safely almost singlehandedly but the ending wasn’t the massive triumphalism that so many American movies aim for. It really ended with just her alone, as she had been for most of the movie, and relieved.

Categories: Movies

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