Gravity

The word "escapism" has been tossed around in many recent film reviews.  Most critics are right to use this word as it seems that Hollywood is mainly interested in mind-numbing blockbuster fare.  This makes me very sad.  While it is true that escapist films can be enjoyable, there is no real substance there.  Great films do not invite the audience to escape, they invite the audience to connect.  Great films give the viewers characters to relate to and a story to become immersed in.  While these viewers may feel like they are escaping from their daily lives, they are actually coming full circle and rediscovering parts of themselves lost or hidden.  The giant faces on the silver screen share their emotions and their struggles.  Great films like Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity show us that we are not alone.

It is interesting then that Gravity is one of the most isolating films I have ever experienced.  For the majority of the film, we are alone with astronaut Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), spinning miles above the earth.  While this may be a boring story in the hands of any other director, Cuaron keeps the tension high and the narrative moving.  He accomplishes this by deftly alternating between the subjective and the objective.  One moment, we are in Bullock's space helmet, seeing the debris flying toward her fogged-up face plate.  The next moment, Cuaron cuts out to a wide shot, showing the relation of Bullock to Earth and the space debris.  By giving us the inside and the out, Cuaron plants us firmly in Bullock's situation while also giving us the full picture.

When Cuaron isn't making use of skillful editing techniques, he employs elaborate, long-take sequence shots.  It is hard to forget the breathtaking sequence shot in Cuaron's previous film Children of Men.  The camera follows Clive Owen through a veritable war zone as mortars explode and blood sprays across the lens.  In Gravity, the director outdoes himself.  In the opening shot, the camera swoops in and around the rotating shuttle craft.  George Clooney's Matt Kowalski jokes as he fires his jetpack and flies around the spinning craft.  The first shot must be at least five minutes long.  It is a beautiful shot that is also effective in introducing us to a strange, weightless world.  With Cuaron it is never about showing off, but you kind of want to hate the guy for being so good.

You know you're talking about a great film when the special effects aren't the first thing mentioned.  So many Hollywood special effects draw attention to themselves and you hear people walking out of the theater saying, "Well, I guess it looked cool."  With Gravity, the special effects are so seamlessly integrated into the story world that they are quickly forgotten.  Still, let's give credit where credit is due.  Cuaron and his team created a state-of-the-art LED lighting cube with motion-controlled lights.  They employed expert wirework to simulate the weightlessness.  I'm not even sure how this all works, but I don't really need to know.  I do know that for 90 minutes, I felt like I was in space, floating miles above my home.  

However, this isn't a film where people just float around in space and then go home.  While the dialogue is spare and the narrative simple, the film deals with themes of survival and resurrection.  Bullock's journey to find a way home is accompanied by a story of self-discovery and the triumph of the human spirit.  I really hate that saying, but it works in this instance.  Though I have never said this before and probably never will again, Sandra Bullock's performance is beautiful.  Hey, I liked her in Speed and Demolition Man, back when she was cute and spunky.  Older, Oscar-winning Bullock often annoys me with her overacting, but there is none of that in Gravity.  Her fear is real and her will to survive is inspiring.  So much of her performance is heavy breathing and terrified babbling, but her few moments of introspection create a full character that is immediately relatable.

It is hard to imagine finding a part of yourself in a film set in zero gravity.  I had that experience with Gravity.  I have never been in space, but I share Bullock's feelings of doubt and fear.  Like many people, I know how it is to feel alone, surrounded by blackness.  But to share that feeling with a fictional character and a theater full of people is to no longer be alone.  That is what makes cinema great; it takes us to strange new worlds while bringing us even closer to home.