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**** out of ****
Alfonso Cuarón amazed me once
with his film, Children of Men, where he had the ambition to shoot long parts
of the movie without cutting and did so with flawless blocking to keep the
ongoing imagery alive and intense. Uninterrupted takes have the power give a
viewer the feeling that they are really witnessing something -and that feeling
becomes stronger the longer the take lasts. This isn’t the necessary goal of
every filmmaker, but it’s strange how rarely this cinematic approach is utilized.
When you think about it, the tendency for current action movies to contain
indulgent cutting doesn’t make sense. Modern production and post-production
tools enable filmmakers to make a shot continue for an amazing amount of time.
The opportunity is there and directors like Cuarón are willing to put forth the
effort to make a movie like Gravity, which is one of the most amazing
cinematic experiences I have witnessed.
Gravity has a simple
formula placed in the most extraordinary circumstances. As astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) repair the Hubble telescope, an unexpected debris
storm comes through, destroying their shuttle and crew, leaving the two
marooned in the earth’s orbit (All the events I just mentioned take place in
one shot). To make matters worse, they have lost contact with mission control
(appropriately voiced by Ed Harris). What follows is a typical story of
spiritual rebirth through survival. I don’t mean to downplay the importance of
this movie’s emotional core. I’m just saying that it’s something we’ve seen in
other movies. Cuarón’s powerful production is praiseworthy because he makes
everything that happens in the movie feel more bold and important than it would
have in a more conventional approach.
Another triumph of this film
is in its casting, which went for top star power to guarantee a return on an
expensive investment for a high-concept production. However, Clooney took a
similar chance on Steven Soderbergh’s underrated science-fiction flop
Solaris. In this film, he has been given equal billing with Bullock, but the
movie is really carried by her. I’ve always liked Sandra Bullock, but rarely do
I like her movies. This is maybe the best and most challenging role of her
career. A good portion of the movie is computer animated with her face and
voice being the only real elements we experience. The sound of her breathing often
tells us more about her endurance in this horrifying predicament than her words
do. When she boards a damaged and abandoned space station while shedding her space
suit and creating a transition from her computer animated self to her real
self, the bridge is seamless (I gave up guessing how they did the effects in
this movie halfway through). We see the vulnerable human assuming the fetal
position in zero gravity just to rest before figuring out what to do next.
There is a little
expositional dialogue exchange between Clooney and Bullock when he is
attempting to keep her spirits up by asking her where she’s from. This was the
only part that felt silly because they’re astronauts and have shared close
quarters for a long time. I would think they know every last boring detail of each
other’s lives. Still, what does it matter? The feeling of floating through
space above the earth with these people in gorgeous shot after long shot is a
little too overwhelming to leave me nitpicking.
2013 has been a year of
movies with some of the most beautiful outer-space special effects I’ve seen.
Three flawed but engaging films, were Oblivion, Elysium and Star Trek Into Darkness –all of which had seamlessly executed scenes of things floating in
space. This movie tops them all in terms of visuals and is a great movie in the
process.
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