Cuarón's Dazzling Space Odyssey Turns into a Cathartic Journey of the Human Spirit

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2013)

The irony of the film's title is that there isn't any, gravity that is, but that's not to say it lacks gravitas. It does in ways both unexpected and transcendent. It's been seven long years since Alfonso Cuarón's last film, 2006's emotionally propulsive thriller, "Children of Men", which was a masterful work of suspense in the midst of one seriously dystopian vision of the apocalypse. Somehow, the less-than-prolific filmmaker manages to surpass that impressive work with this terrifying yet genuinely profound 2013 science-fiction thriller that buzzes by in a fleet 91 minutes. Although Ang Lee effectively used 3-D CGI effects to enhance the magical realism of "Life of Pi", I have never seen a film use them as purposefully and powerfully as Cuarón does here within the dramatic structure of the story. Co-written with his son Jonás, the screenplay, by contrast, is life-size in its intimacy and even with all the technical jargon, at times poetic. This combination gives the film an almost mythic reach and at the same time, brings insight into the way the human spirit works against the overwhelming emptiness of space. The story takes place about 372 miles above Earth, and the alternately ethereal and scarifying setting is captured in brilliant detail by ace cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and special effects master Tim Webber.
Pay particularly close attention to the uninterrupted seventeen-minute sequence that opens the film. It's a bravura piece of cinema by anyone's standards. In brief, bio-medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone is on her first space mission studiously installing a device to fix the Hubble Space Telescope on the U.S Space Shuttle Explorer. Mission commander Matt Kowalski is a veteran astronaut who devilishly spacewalks around her in a jet pack. Mission Control reports that the Russians have blown up one of their own satellites which transforms into a massive attack of hurling debris that arrives in a matter of seconds and will continue to make an orbital return causing massive destruction every ninety minutes. There is no time for the crew to return to the shuttle much less Earth, and the damage to the craft and nearby International Space Station is extensive. It's enough to say that Stone sets off on a journey not only of physical survival but spiritual awakening as her character has been in a listless state since a senseless personal tragedy occurred back home. If you don't count the voiceovers at the beginning, there are only two actors who make up the entire cast, and they are grade-A stars who bring their personal charisma to the fore.
George Clooney has the smaller of the two roles as Kowalski, and he uses his natural insouciance to great effect as his wisecracking gives way to a character who provides the knowledgably becalming tone that Stone needs at the story's most critical points. He makes one particularly risky scene work by the sheer magnitude of his character's life- affirming bravado. He also impressively wrote the scene. Even so, this is Sandra Bullock's film from start to finish, and it amazes me how she wasn't even among the top casting choices for the role (Angelina Jolie turned it down twice). Although Stone may come across as emotionally stunted, Bullock offers her natural likability as a necessary counterbalance. However, that observation short-changes her stellar work here, especially the pure physicality of her performance. Intriguingly, her character is not that far removed from the one she played nearly twenty years earlier in "While You Were Sleeping" in that both deal with personal losses with an emotional alertness that wins us over completely. Only this time she does it with a graceful maturity that deepens the catharsis of the incredible odyssey she experiences, this in spite of a few overtly sentimental moments thrown in for good measure. Regardless, this is Cuarón's towering cinematic achievement, and the movie truly stands on its own.