"I Don't Want to Survive. I Want to Live!"

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2013)

Gravity is Alfonso Cuaron's first movie in seven years and it's well worth the wait. Once again he proves that he is one of the most visionary directors working today and he delivers a film on par with his masterpiece Children of Men. The movie stars Sandra Bullock as Ryan Stone, a first time astronaut who is the sole surviver of a devastating wreckage that leaves her drifting in space. She must fight against all odds to get back to earth. Needless to say the visual effects are amazing, perhaps the best ever seen on film. It is beautiful to behold. The view of earth from space is stunning and the scenes of chaotic debris flying every which way is equally beautiful even as it is terrifying. The 3D only helps to enhance the experience, making the audience feel as through their floating along right next to Ryan Stone. The cinematography is equally amazing. It's fluid motions are like brush strokes on a canvas, and it should finally get Emmanuel Lubezki a well deserved Oscar for his work. Perhaps most surprising though was the great score by Steven Price. The fact that this is only Price's third film score makes it all the more impressive.
But it is not a movie that relies entirely on it's groundbreaking effects. At the heart of the movie is Sandra Bullock's performance. By far her best turn yet, Bullock takes this science fiction thriller and turns it into a very human story. A conflict between the fight to survive and the fight to go on living. Throughout the film it is clear that Stone is distant, almost detached from the other characters. She seems almost indifferent at times to the horror that surrounds her. It becomes clear that she had never come to terms with life after the death of her young daughter. The audience need only look into her eyes to see the cold indifference behind the fear. It is an emotion that is all the stronger when one is in space, and able to see just how inconsequential they are to the grand scale of the world and the universe. The audience, along with Stone, is left to wonder, does it really matter? If you die, the world will continue to spin as if nothing ever happened.
Gravity is more than just a movie, it's an experience. One of the few films that can take you out of your seat and completely immerse you in the thrills, the tension and even the feeling of weightlessness. It is a movie about survival. Pure and simple. Today we often take survival for granted. We have adapted our environment so thoroughly that we no longer have to fight to survive. We live comfortably in heated and air conditioned homes and we rarely think of what it means to survive versus what it means to live. We forget that it's not all about survival. After all, life is not worth living if all you do is survive.