It's really Sandra Bullock's show

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2013)

I know--George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are billed as co-stars, and somehow one expects--from Hollywood clichés--them to develop some kind of romantic relationship as they are trapped in space following the destruction, on the part of the Russians' blowing up a satellite, of their space shuttle. It doesn't happen; Clooney keeps telling the undertrained-for-the-mission Bullock things to do, which she doesn't. Eventually they have to untether themselves, with Clooney drifting off to his death. Bullock then has to make it to a Russian skylab, then a Chinese one, and it's remarkable how she works the buttons on the control panels on each, considering that the labels are in the native tongues, not in English.
Then there's the issue of her keeping her sanity: laughing at some Chinese program she picks up on her two-way communication, talking to herself and trying--still--to get a grip on the death of her young daughter.
You can't but feel the helplessness of two people stranded several hundred miles (distances are given in metric in most cases) above Earth, the rest of the space-shuttle crew wiped out, and two--then one--person trying to get to a vehicle which will take her home--with no one, not even ground control in Houston--to help. Does she make it back? You'll have to see the movie.
This movie kept everyone in the theater where I saw it completely riveted. And I, too, will not be surprised if Sandra Bullock gets Best Actress in the 2014 Oscars. It's her movie--not Clooney's.