Good film, beautiful, with many layers

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2013)

There is definitely depth of story, I found it a many layered film. What I mean by layered is – the overlap of the visual, the action, the technical, the characters, the story - that the real depth of the film line only occurs to one later (in my case the next morning as my usual wine and discussion didn't happen on this occasion). The underlying (slower) layer as I see it is that Dr. Ryan 'chooses life' after a period of depression due to the loss of her child. The silence of space being the time a foetus spends in the womb in preparation for life; the ensuing struggle for survival being the contractions and the baby's journey through the birth channel; her nearly drowning and emergence out of the lake being the newborn baby emptying his lungs of birth fluid in order to take his first breath of air .. it's a story about rebirth. If you reflect back to the images of Dr. Ryan in the space pod they also remind one of images of unborn foetuses in the womb, even down to the umbilical cord. Aside from the birth metaphor, there's also a possible spiritual layer in the visit from Matt - you can see it as a hallucination induced by lack of O2 or as a spiritual kick-start – as Matt had as much O2 as she did - which is the catalyst for her choosing life and re-joining the 'birth struggle'. So, in a nutshell: on the beautiful backdrop of 3D space, a life and death struggle, often from inside the helmet (you'll need a hot bath afterwards to soothe your stressed neck) that is so intense that the deeper meaning may filter through only when you're on the wine in your bath. The music I found intense and heartstabbing, bringing the visual and dramatic layers right in.