At the IMAX screening of Gravity, I counted at least six moments when a young audience member responded to the images on the towering screen in front of him. They were breathy utterances of “ooohhh…”. It’s true, there’s a lot to oogle in Alfonso Cuaron’s (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men) science fiction opus. He provides a spectacle full of intricate, detailed images and wonder. It is the most gratifying and engaging replication of space travel since 2001 — complemented with some thrilling moments. In other words, it’s an amiable marriage of Hitchcock and Kubrick.
Like his last film (Children), Cuaron shoots long sequences without any cuts. The camera hovers, follows, probes and pans back with pitch-perfect timing. The film’s opening is at least ten minutes that demonstrates the brilliant amount of attention and craftsmenship involved. It also creates the sensation of floating in the cosmos.
When the dangers arrives, we feel trapped, unable to change the course trajectory; powerless to avoid the dangers that approach. Cuaron borrows from Hitchcock by toying with the audiences’ limitations. Like Jimmy Stewart’s wheelchair-bound voyeur in Rear Window, we’re confined to merely watching. In the case of Gravity, there’s a moment when Sandra Bullock is spinning out of control in the blackness of space. We see through her helmet, but, like her, all we can do is watch — and gasp.
Gravity’s expert single-shot film-making is exemplified with the best special effects ever created. Cuaron’s camera tricks — handled so brilliantly in Children — are so dazzling that they feel more like magic tricks. And they are. The film took four years to finish and you can tell merely by freezing and exploring each frame for its sheer attention to detail and the seamless transitions between the flesh and pixels. You’d be hard pressed to figure where each connects and end.
There’s never a moment when we doubt Sandra Bullock (Ryan) and George Clooney (Matt) are in the Earth’s orbit, performing routine repairs on a NASA satellite. When a stray rocket causes a huge debris fallout, the astronauts are soon stranded in the far reaches of space. The duo utilize the few tools they have — Ryan has less than 10% of oxygen; Matt has only a few puffs left to propel his suit and tow Ryan back to a nearby Russian station.
The plot is centered around a routine fight for survival. Gravity’s suspense relies heavily on a series of both bad and lucky circumstances. Ryan and Matt’s obstacles seem to be the constant barrage of debri that always returns as it circles the Earth every 90 minutes. They always seem to in directly in the course the debris’ path. Their passable transports always appear to be intact until its time for them to actually use them. Cuaron retains the tension at a feasible level, although the story focuses on recurring obstacles that grow surprisingly cliche after a while. Rather than depend heavily on science, Cuaron settles for last second grabs and dodges. However cheap they are, they mostly work.
Despite the cliches (our hopeless hero has a tragic history), Bullock and Clooney settle in their respective roles and rise above their material. Clooney retains the usual calm and cool demeanor; never straying too far away from his charisma, whereas Bullock really excels by selling the unnerving, ending peril. Despite the grandeur of the IMAX screen, Bullock captivates and engages us with much needed dimension despite the miniscule plot.
Gravity is the greatest technical marvel and 3D experience since Avatar. Like the latter, I suspect Gravity will lose its luster on the television screens, even for those who have impeccable home theaters. The grandeur of Gravity exists in its impeccable sense of scale, wonder, and spectacle. It imbues a sense of urgency and suspense that will remain in its home video afterlife, but its human story will never match its technical prowess. However, it is the closest film since 2001 to really create the illusion of traveling through the wonderous and perillous cosmos. It remains an experience that must be had in the IMAX. Gravity’s pull is too strong to wait for Redbox.
The little boy was merely uttering what the rest of the audience was feeling. This is the best movie experience of 2013.
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