Gravity Review

3.0 Stars

 

Gravity is the harrowing tale of the survival of brilliant medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in space.  This is Stone's first mission to space and Kowalsky's last before retiring.  While out on a seemingly routine spacewalk, tragedy strikes.  Debris from a nearby Russian satellite that has just exploded destroys their ship and the space station, killing the rest of the crew and leaving Stone and Kowalsky drifting away by themselves.  

This looks like a combination of Apollo 13 in which astronauts were trapped inside their damaged shuttle and Open Water in which two scuba divers are stranded in shark infested waters with no land in sight.  Gravity appears to be the worst of both of those scenarios; however, for me, it failed to truly capture the sense of desperation.  The film starts with about a ten minute continuous shot of Dr. Stone (Bullock) working on updating a satellite in space while Kowalsky (Clooney) is maneuvering around the satellite and the shuttle.  The cinematography is brilliant as the camera captures shots of the earth, of deep space, of Dr. Stone, of the shuttle and of Kowalsky.  The crew is alerted that the Russians have destroyed one of their own satellites with a missile and debris is heading their way.  Although the movie opens with the notes that sound does not travel through space, for dramatic effect, we hear the debris screaming past the astronauts and the ship being torn apart. The debris sends Dr. Stone and Kowalsky hurdling through space.  They are separated and Dr. Stone has no way to stop herself from floating away.  Though we spend a few minutes tumbling frantically with her, it seemed Kowalsky was able to track her down rather quickly and they both made their way back to the shuttle to assess the damages.  Upon arriving at the ship, we learn that Dr. Stone and Kowalsky are the only two survivors.  Peering into the wreckage of the shuttle, silently alone in space, the bodies of two other crew members killed in the accident come floating towards Dr. Stone and the silence is broken up with sharp and loud music heightening the terror of discovering the dead bodies.  Sometimes I feel that less is more and that the horrified reaction of Dr. Stone alone would have been scarier than the manipulated fear the accompanying music tried to create.  Gravity has been nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Original Music, but I felt that the music actually took away from the movie rather than complimented it in many parts of the film.

After realizing their shuttle is completely destroyed, Dr. Stone and Kowalsky make their way to the International Space Station where they will hopefully use one of the pods to make their way back to earth.  Dr. Stone is running low on oxygen and Kowalsky keeps her talking to keep her calm and conserve her oxygen.  But he also has a problem as his jet pack is running low of propulsion fuel.  Once they make it to the ISS, Kowalsky quickly realizes, they both won't be able to make it and one of them must go forward without the other.  He sacrifices himself and she enters the ISS.  I know that he is a professional astronaut and makes the smart decision to allow Dr. Ryan to continue, but I felt the scene was just a little too quick and emotionless again failing to create the sense of Dr. Ryan's situation getting more and more desperate and hopeless.  Once inside the ISS, Dr. Ryan realizes the boosters on the remaining escape pod have been damaged and she appears to be trapped.  She quickly gives up on herself and shuts down the oxygen supply to her ship.  Miraculously, Kowalsky reappears claiming he was able to find a little more juice in his jet pack to make it back to her and reminds her that there's still a way to power the escape pod enough to make it to a nearby Chinese satellite which should still have an escape pod to make it to earth.  It turns out, predictably to me, that the Kowalsky return is a hallucination, but it's enough to prompt Dr. Stone to give it another shot.  She resupplies her pod with oxygen and makes her way to the Chinese satellite.  There is, indeed, a remaining pod and she's able to use the pod to safely return to earth.

The movie is only an hour and a half long.  With so many movies often eclipsing the two hour length, it seems that a few more minutes of excruciating and awkward silence could have been added to some scenes to create the feeling of hopelessness and futility of the situation.  I felt there was always hope and always a way out for Dr. Ryan.  I was disappointed with the use of musical accompaniment to create emotions when I felt the situation by itself would have achieved the effect much more successfully.  I felt the long continuous shots of the astronauts in space were ground-breaking and gorgeous.  My only complaint about that would be the times when water splashed on the camera lens.  This is a technique used sometimes in movies to create the effect that you, the viewer, are right there in the middle of the action.  However, in a 3D movie, the water on the lens just created a blurry distraction.  I felt that Sandra Bullock gave an incredible performance.  I can see why she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, but I will have to see the rest of the nominees before deciding if she is the worthy recipient.  Ultimately, Gravity fell short of my expectations which is why I gave it 3 stars.  It was worth the money to see it, but I probably won't see it again and it won't be making its way to my personal collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.