Gravity

Rating : 8/10
Release Date : 4th October, 2013
Time : 91 minutes
Director : Alfonso Cuaron; Writers : Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron; Music : Steven Price
Starring : George Clooney, Sandra Bullock

We sometimes forget how much we want to live until we’re pushed to the very limits. With breathtaking visuals, an unflagging pace and tension rife in every scene, Gravity does a great job of reminding us how much the simple act of being able to breathe means to us.

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are on a routine mission, if space-walking can ever be called routine, fixing something on a satellite when things go horribly wrong, thanks to some unplanned debris…now, they can no longer communicate with Houston, there are no survivors amongst their co-workers and their ride back to Earth is no longer operational. And they’re stuck in space, with a gorgeous view of Earth but with no way back and rapidly depleting oxygen and jet propulsion…

There is a juxtaposition of life-threatening situations (one after another) with some stunningly beautiful backdrops. Of an atmosphere of stifling tension when there is no atmosphere or air to breathe. Of serious life or death choices to be made amongst a barrage of anecdotes, some told and some untold

Its quite amazing how the two characters start to mean so much to us, despite our knowing so little about them. Sandra Bullock, a space rookie, is more a communications expert, up there on her first mission, struggling to cope with the effects of space, experiencing breathlessness and nausea. George Clooney is the veteran, jetting around with gay abandon, knowing the details of every procedure, every vessel, even the Russian and Chinese. He badly wants to break the longest space walk record but treats it, as he does everything else, with a studied nonchalance that belies his hardcore professionalism.

What makes this film extraordinary of course is the backdrop. Its space, one of the final frontiers, a place where all of us secretly dream of going. And its shown in present time (no futuristic scenario), with no aliens or Earth threatening catastrophe or people with unusual powers…the beauty and the terrors of space are shown in brilliant detail, with a plot that reminds us, that when push comes to shove, no matter how much we’ve suffered in life, we want to continue to live…