Gravity

 

You’re floating in space.

Alone.

The tether that kept you secure to the space shuttle was severed when the incoming storm of debris zoomed by and destroyed everything in their path – you were warned that that an old Russian satellite had exploded and the debris caused a chain reaction of destruction around the Earth.

Your oxygen level is depleting fast because you are breathing rapidly – feeling claustrophobic and yet floating lost in the open space.

What would you do?

This is the premise of the movie by Alfonso Cuarón called Gravity – the relatively simple story line is brought to life wonderfully under Cuarón’s direction and with the great portrayal of Ryan Stone – the scientist who is lost in space – by Sandra Bullock, and his astronaut companion, Matt Kowalski, played perfectly by George Clooney.  The whole movie very much revolves around Bullock and Clooney, with Sandra Bullock carrying the soul of the story.  Watched in its 3D glory, Gravity managed to make my hands all clammy as I immersed myself in the story. I wouldn’t know what to do and how I could survive such predicament.

I can’t help thinking that Cuarón is also trying to post a philosophical question with the movie – about the connection that we have with other people – as the gravity that pulls each one of us together. Bullock’s character, Ryan Stone, believes that she has nobody who would care for her. Nobody would pray for her soul nor miss her if she dies in space – she has lost her gravity back on Earth anyway. There is also a scene where Bullock manages to get into a Soyuz escape pod and she quickly removes all of her astronaut outfit and lies suspended in space in a foetal position, with wires and cables in the background – almost like umbilical cords.  It’s that sense of connection that she is missing and craving so much.  There’s so much that I want to write here about the character’s progression but that would reveal too much of the storyline and I don’t want to spoil anybody’s viewing enjoyment.

Gravity is a feast for the eyes and the senses – especially if you can watch it in 3D! One of the best I’ve seen this year!

 

 

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