Weightless

Rating: 4/10 (12 December 2013)

Well, so much for the credibility of the Golden Globe Awards. That was why I decided to watch this movie. It received a number of nominations so it must be good, right? Sadly, it was not. It was as believable as an episode of Sponge Bob, but Bob has more psychological depth than Sandra Bullock's character. Actually, my bathroom sponge has more psychological depth than Sandra Bullock's character. I mean, the idea seemed good, two people set adrift in space, dealing with the inevitability of death and all the angst that that would entail. But I knew something was wrong when, instead of confronting this sobering reality, George Clooney's character begins engaging in cocktail party banter. I was baffled. I thought that maybe I had been misinformed. Maybe this was some kind of black comedy. Yes, it was a kind of a comedy but, regretfully, it was only accidentally so. Mainly, this is a one actress tour de force. You've got to be real good, REAL GOOD, to pull off an acting role like this. Tom Hanks did it in Cast Away, but, as is now strikingly evident, Sandra Bullock is no Tom Hanks. In her defense, she didn't have much of a script to work with. It seemed to be written by a 15-year-old. And I think the producers realized something was wrong. It just didn't have the punch they wanted and I suspect they realized this. Inspirational sections were not, so, you have the inspiring music swelling up in the background. Give me a break with this musical prodding that has become so prevalent in recent B movies. No amount of dramatic music can replace a bad script with bad acting. I won't even go into the physics of being adrift in space. I suspect that, somewhere, NASA scientists are throwing back beers and having great laughs at the movie's expense. They were probably the ones who gave it a five star rating. Hey, you don't suppose they work part time as Golden Globe judges, do you?