Theatrical Release: Gravity

Alfonso Cuaron's gripping, completely immersive, survival, sci-fi tale "Gravity" is now playing in theaters. I fully recommend that everyone watch this film on the biggest screen you can find and in a theater with Dolby Atmos surround sound, if possible. If anything is necessary to make this movie the fantastic experience it can be, it is the sound.  It's not the 3D, not the story, not the acting, and not the visuals (of course all of those are fun and awesome too; more on some of these anon). The music (oh man, that music is still ringing in my ears a week later) and the sound effects take you into space and don't let you go.

The story is simple. Two astronauts played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are stranded in space after an orbit of debris hits and destroys their spaceship. How will they survive in space where sound does not carry, temperatures vary wildly, O2 is running out, fuel in just about every propelling system is dwindling, and just about everything else you could expect goes wrong? Though the story is minimal (I love this about the film, by the way) and there are only two actors in the film (aside from voice acting including Ed Harris reprising for the third time his role as Houston), the experience is not. This is a movie experience of a life time. This is not a novel or short story where psychological details and plot are of the essence. Rather we are living chiefly with and sometimes even inside the helmet of Sandra Bullock's character during the 5 or so hours she spends trying to survive in the inhospitable environment that is space.

This shot is the shot of the movie. It is terrifyingly brilliant and encapsulates the breathtaking experience provided by Cuaron throughout 90 mins. Though the film is less heady than, say, "2001" or Tarkovsky's "Solaris," the film still hints at interesting themes of rebirth and growth as we follow Bullock's astronaut through her incredible life and character changing experience. If she survives, she'll have one crazy story to tell, and she'll never be the same because of it.

Cuaron and his terrific DP Emmanuel Lubezki go back and forth between long, ever-moving tracking shots and in-close, claustrophic-inducing shots. The first shot has been talked about at great lengths already. I clocked it at 12 minutes and 41 seconds. It was superbly done and introduces everything you need to know for the entire ride. At 7 minutes Houston notes that a satellite has been shot down by Russia but that the debris's trajectory is not on their orbit. Then at 9 minutes, that all changes. The debris has caused a chain reaction and now other debris has been created which is very quickly going to hit the astronauts working on the Hubble space telescope. It's amazing how Cuaron and Lubezki manage to do this. In addition, every other shot in the film is magnificent. The use of reflections, in particular, is quite unlike anything I have ever seen in a film.

Though I typically either love or hate both of the main actors, I thought they did a very nice job here. Sandra Bullock, in particular, was extremely surprising. I hope she continues to surprise in her next roles. And George Clooney offers bits of humor to relax us a bit from the edge of our seats. Though the film itself is unforgettable and it will have your blood pressure on high long after you leave the theater, I do not think the experience will be the same on subsequent viewings. That's one thing that films that are equally unforgettable, like "2001" and this year's "Upstream Color," have that "Gravity" does not. In addition, though some have claimed that it's as much of an emotional experience as it is a purely physical experience, I disagree. The emotional resonance could have been stronger, but this is a minor criticism as the pure visceral experience is experience enough. This is a must-see of 2013; it's currently my second favorite movie of the year.

*Note there's no mention about how factual the movie is in this review. That's because how factual a science-fiction film is, ultimately doesn't matter to a movie experience. This isn't a documentary, folks. Don't be smug. Enjoy the thrills.  :-)