There are moments in Gravity that truly remind you of the power of movies as a medium. Alfonso Cuaron’s space survival epic was built to just wow and the big screen and wow it does, bringing the kind of intensity and wonder that you hope every movie would. But for all of that intensity and virtuoso filmmaking, there’s something that just doesn’t quite connect. It makes for an interesting contrast that the film doesn’t quite manage to make work.
Gravity is a good movie but often times it feels like an exercise in filmmaking rather than a fully realized film. But what an exercise it was, with Cuaron and Lubezki nailing each set piece and composition to propel the film forward. Lubezki in particular is just operating on a different level and I wanted to shout YAASSSS in the movie theater at how good some of those shots were. I mean he turns a wide shot into a POV shot so seemlessly you don’t realize what’s happening until after it does.
However, for all it’s grandness, it feels as though it’s just that, a grand film. I was able to appreciate the surface, but couldn’t really penetrate the film, partly because at a certain point in time the film really starts calling attention to itself. There’s not a particular moment that stands out but somewhere around the beginning of the final third act, the movie stops being just a survival tale and starts being a SURVIVAL TALE. The score, beautifully crafted by Steven Price to match the soundscape of debris attacks and loneliness, suddenly becomes John Williams 2.0 of sweeping emotion and loudness and the script finds need to have a character experience a vision that while understandable, places a bit too much sentimentality into the narrative. The script also presents us with some pretty stock characters and I just wasn’t able to connect emotionally with them, though I was fully invested in their survival.
Speaking of the characters, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney perform admirably, serving Cuaron’s vision to a T. Much will be made of Bullock’s Oscar chances, and while I don’t see this performance as being on that level, I will say that there haven’t been many women that felt as imperative to a film as Bullock. Like she’s giving us Ripley from Alien as well as being just enough of an every woman that we feel as though we are her. In these respects she’s like a blank slate, allowing us to paint our fears and hopes on her as she plays the character, stock though it may be.
Gravity, in the end, lives and dies based on how far the film grips you and for all of the times I stopped breathing during the film, it just didn’t invite me all the way into its glory. Luckily there was enough in this film to keep me engaged and interested throughout.
Grade: ***/**** (B)