Review: Gravity

Pure and simple, Gravity is unlike anything you will see this year or for a while. On a technical level, the film is a great achievement. I will get to some of the problems with the story in a bit, but I want to start by clearly recommending you see Gravity in the theater. It's truly one of those films you must see on a big screen.

Gravity follows Sandra Bullock as Ryan Stone, who is in space to install some sort of technology she developed. The story is almost non-existent here. The thing you need to know is that something goes horribly wrong cause Ryan to spin off into space away from Matt, played by George Clooney.

Simple plot lines don't bother me and for the first hour, Gravity is absolutely stunning. Director Alfonso Cuaron moves his camera in ways no film has ever done before. He creates an illusion of space that is as close as anyone would want to get to the real thing. And his space is scary as hell. The tension and suspense sustained in that first hour is a marvel. I haven't been so white-knuckled at a movie since Cuaron's last film, the genius Children of Men.

The technical achievements are truly something to behold. Space films have always struggled to get at the lonliness and desolation of space. Gravity achieves this in spades. The films edits are almost invisible giving things a fluid, unbroken feel. The film rarely let's you catch your breath.

Close to the hour mark, the film tries for an emotional payoff. For me, there was just to little to latch onto to find this element effective. Bullock is an okay actress but she's too familiar and too much a star to disappear into the character. The character is merely a sketch and when we are asked to care about her transformation, the movie falls flat. Not everyone will have the same issues I did but I largely blame the casting. If an unknown had played Ryan, I might be able to project my own feelings onto the character and fill out the gaps in development.

Gravity is a hell of an achievement. It's thrilling and scary and awe-inspiring. It's also a shell of a story with characters that feel much more like puppets than real people. Its a shame I couldn't connect more to the emotional side of the film. Cuaron brought me to tears with Children of Men but here he puts his trust too much in Bullock and she lets him down. A quick word on the 3D. I saw it in 3D and wished I was seeing it in 2D as the debris in many of the scenes is too blurry to enjoy.