By this time, I believe most people who were interested in the movie would have seen it. It is a movie about survival in space. No there are no aliens, just some good old people floating and drifting above Earth. I read some interviews with the director Alfonso Cuaron, and the actors Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. They were all talking about how the movie displayed a strong will of living can sometimes create miracles. This theme constantly runs through in Gravity. When it seems that all hope is lost, if you are willing to stay alive, that will could well be your lifesaver.
Gravity has generated another series of Oscar buzz for Sandra Bullock and I think she rightly deserves it. It is basically a one-woman show that gravitates you to this person’s survival tale. Usually I get really bored with this kind of movie as sometimes I do think producers, directors or screenwriters are stretching it too much and thus taxes its believability. However, this is not the case in Gravity. You do care more about the character and you will feel her disappointment when things did not work out as planned. Alfonso Cuaron has crafted a piece of work with the correct length that continues to capture your attention at every corner. I was unwilling to take my eyes off the screen and felt annoyed when I needed attend to my in flight catering (lucky you can pause the movie when the cabin crew displayed their hospitality). In the movie, there was virtually no help available to Sandra’s main character Ryan. Through this ordeal Ryan not only learnt about survival but also the meaning and reason of living. It is sometimes sad that it takes such an extreme situation for someone to understand the value of life. However, sometimes we do need this kind of epiphany to helps us truly appreciate life and overcome our obstacles to achieve true and simple happiness. Ryan’s ordeal was very real and emotional. Alfonso Cuaron said Gravity was partly a personal story as he was going through a rough patch in life at that time and thus poured his energy into this screenplay.
Without a doubt, Alfonso had brought out some of the best performances from Sandra Bullock. This is an extremely difficult production in a way that Sandra is being suspended in the air most of the time while trying to deliver her lines and keeping the performance real. In her interview Sandra said it was some of the most difficult things she did in a way that you have to ensure that every movement is right on the dot otherwise it is NG and doing it all over again. Furthermore most of time it is just a green screen with basic directions of where to look at and how far the target object was supposed to be. This is hard enough doing it normally not to mention being suspended in the air for several hours every day in a heavy astronaut costume. I think just for this, Sandra Bullock deserves winning an Oscar (though probably Cate Blanchett will win for her performance in Blue Jasmine).
George Clooney provided some great support in Gravity despite most of the attention was given to Sandra Bullock. His character is pivotal to Sandra’s character survival and he also provided good Clooney comic relief for an extremely intense journey. It might not be an Oscar nominating role like he had in the past, but it is equally important in the movie, and that is what matters.
In my opinion, Gravity is a well-paced, well-written and well-constructed masterpiece of the modern time. It might not have deadly aliens chasing you across a space station, or aliens invading your home turf in hordes. But the environment is as equally difficult to survive and that is what made it great – just simple story telling and technologies are just things to make this story happen. If you still haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend you to check it out when it is available on other legally published formats.
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