The most visually stunning movie ever!

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2013)

Gravity is unlike any movie ever told.
The plot is simple - two astronauts are adrift in space and have to a find a way to rescue themselves and get back to earth. Nothing more, nothing less. What grabs the viewer is the treatment of this simple storyline and the incredible way in which the movie depicts it.
The movie begins with these words against a black screen ""At 600 km above planet Earth, the temperature fluctuates between +258 and -148 degrees Fahrenheit. There is nothing to carry sound. No air pressure. No oxygen. Life in space is impossible." No music, no dialogue, as the screen disappears, replaced by our planet. It fills the screen and engulfs the viewer within it, so much so that you feel like you are floating, spinning along with it. And you see this spot, in the distance, to the right. The spot moves closer to you, drifting on its orbit until finally it arrives, filling the screen, blocking your view of earth, and you see the American space shuttle and a team of astronauts floating outside it. And then you are inside the movie, part of it, experiencing the same space as the astronauts, a feeling of utter weightlessness and peace.
Within the first thirty minutes, everything changes. Peace and serenity becomes utter horror. A routine repair mission becomes a disaster, with one astronaut dead, and two others drifting into space. The rest of the movie revolves around their efforts to get back to earth.
As I said, a very simple plot, and in the hands of a lesser director, or lesser actors, the movie would have been a disaster as well. As it is, Alfonso Cuaron's vision is ably supported by his lead actors Sandra Bullock (playing emotionally damaged yet strong enough to single-handedly carry the day) and George Clooney (effectively playing himself - suave and breezy as always). There are no other actors, except Ed Harris as the voice from Houston, and a couple of other voices.
The problem is that rather than dwelling on the actors' performance, exceedingly good as they are, my mind keeps going back to the special effects, the result of more than a year in post-production. There is one incredible shot that I remember - when the character of Bullock is cast adrift into space. There is dead silence punctuated only the sounds of her harsh gasps. The camera moves towards her, closer and closer, until her terrified face fills the screen, and then incredibly, suddenly, the camera is inside her helmet, and we are looking at the vast expanse of space through her eyes, and realize how awfully alone she is. And that's just one scene of the movie. Right from the utter desolation of space to the cramped confines of a rescue ship, the director's vision has imagined it all, and he has brought us into the ambit of his imagination.
Gravity is not a movie you just watch, it is a movie that you experience, it is a movie in which you get involved. Remember, in space, no one can hear you scream.