Brilliant Feast of Visual Pyrotechnics that is Genuinely Scary

Rating: 9/10 (11 November 2013)

The plot of GRAVITY is straightforward enough: Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and her astronaut companion Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are left to fend for themselves in space after their craft is destroyed. But this scenario belies the film's greatest virtue - its quite amazing photography and visual effects. All credit must be due to director Alphonso Cuaron and director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki for creating a film which, watched with 3D spectacles, is both scary yet compelling. We feel we are lost in space with the protagonists; the debris that threatens their future threatens us as well. The color palette used in the film is just gorgeous; I have seldom seen such views of so-called "Mother Earth" in all its finery, especially at sunrise. Through this experience, which is both sensual, aural as well as visual, we learn something about ourselves and are capacity to survive, even when the odds seem stacked against us. Perhaps it's just a matter of returning to a womb-like state (it's significant that Bullock appears in this position several times throughout the film) and understanding where we came from, as well as who we are. GRAVITY is the best SF film I have seen in years - definitely worth seeing more than once, if only to savor a life-changing experience.