A movie where it's very hard to suspend disbelief

Rating: 4/10 (2 March 2014)

If this movie was fantasy, or set in another universe, or science and realism were just brushed to the side, I could enjoy it. But it's not. It's a movie that depends on its realism, focuses on it, and utterly fails at it.
First, high school physics. From the basic premise, to the minute to minute action, to the conclusion, this movie depends on physics. And one thing this movie fails at completely, is physics. Both the initiating event and the final heroic sacrifice are completely unsupportable and end up being annoying and distracting rather than emotional because of it.
The movie also fails at the geography of space, putting objects thousands of miles away within spitting distance; in fact the initial premise of the movie depends on this failed geography, two objects thousands of miles away from each other being in exactly the same orbit.
And then they set up the main character as a nearly untrained, emotionally disturbed woman without any special skills. There is never a convincing reason given for her being there. The qualifications for being a fully mission integrated astronaut are exacting, and the only way I can see anyone getting around them would be as a PR stunt, or if someone was a top level expert who would be valuable to the mission in some special way. So far as we can tell, she's not a PR stunt, and she's not a mission critical expert. She's just there. And after sticking her there for no apparent reason, the movie depends on her inexperience and lack of training to add tension and advance the story.
It's ridiculous. I find it completely impossible to take the movie seriously, when it seems every plot point turns on something unbelievably unrealistic.
The high budget, a-list actors, and high quality special effects make it watchable... but nothing could make it enjoyable.