Gravity

I remember seeing Jurassic Park for the first time. The feeling you get after seeing that brachiosaurus for the first time, in all its grandeur. It’s majesty forcing your jaw muscles to loosen, making you gape at the majestic, beautiful creature. Gravity did that to me in its first scene. In many ways, Gravity is what films were started out for. In the 1910’s, when movies were still a luxury, the script of the movies didn’t really matter. The fact that stuff was moving on screen was what made people happy most of the time.  It was meant to inspire wonder and transport us into another dimension. Gravity does just that. With the marvel of modern technology and sound mixing, it is solid proof of the fact that a simple story, if directed to perfection can still manage to woo audiences worldwide.

The story (for those who haven’t heard it by now), in spoiler free terms, is basically about a crew of people stuck in space after encountering debris. Now, there are some who might argue that the movie stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock but really, it’s just Sandra Bullock. George Clooney is supporting cast, at best. The front runner is clearly Sandra Bullock who has almost definitely booked herself an Oscar nomination. The reason for that is this, the only person, who Cuarón decided to give some background to, was Sandra Bullock’s. George Clooney’s character remained as anonymous as ever. George Clooney, plays what he did in almost every one of his previous films. Fun when it’s required, calm and composed in a situation of distress. I don’t even remember him playing anything different.

The cinematography throughout the movie is jaw dropping. Consider this, if you were watching this on your laptop, and you paused one frame, that frame would serve as a kick-ass wallpaper. The feel of the movie changes drastically from one frame to the next. I discussed this in my post about Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón (the movie’s director) has a way of direction in which disorder comes so suddenly that it leaves a higher impact on the mind. For instance, when the first wave of debris hits them, the transition from ‘order’ to ‘complete chaos’ took roughly 3 seconds (I counted :p). It seemed similar to the changes that happen in an opera. The smooth transition of the ballerina during rapid surges in the notes played. The orchestration of disorder is what makes it so gut-wrenching. The fact that this is all happening in space adds another element of horror to it. Seeing catastrophe of such magnitude over the background of absolute beauty adds another element of horror to it. It’s like the scene from “Silence of the Lambs” when Hannibal Lecter is listening to opera with blood on his face. Beautiful music in an eerie scenario.

The second thing I loved was the sound mixing. The entire dialogue of the movie is in that speakerphone voice. The odd harsh factor adds to the authenticity. But apart from the attention to minute detail shown, the soundtrack is perfectly employed in the movie. There are scenes where there is no sound at all and it adds to the eerie factor of the movie. The whole Idea of “In space, No one can hear you scream.” Propagated by Alien is executed to perfection here. There is a scene in the movie when Sandra Bullock is sitting in a spaceship and she’s shouting. The camera zooms out and as soon as it leaves the ship, there is utter silence. The feeling of hopelessness it creates is immense.

If a person was not completely wowed by the cinematography (I was, slightly, because of my stupid decision to not watch it in IMAX.), there are certain flaws in the movie. None of them take anything away from the movie at all, but could have been touched upon a little. For a person who spent 6 months training for a space flight, Sandra Bullock is slightly “amateurish”. I bet that those guys have a pretty high cutoff for this shit. It’s not like that they wouldn’t drill you for any possible situation. Still, considering that this was her first flight, I’m willing to let that go. The second thing was, the casting of the movie gave something away. George Clooney and Sandra Bullock play exactly the same sort of characters that they have played in every movie. This is not suggesting the fact that they are not good, just that they might have tried to do something different with them. There is a scene in the movie when Clooney comes to save Sandra Bullock and says something like “You might not have noticed how gloriously handsome I was before.” Typical, right? And Sandra Bullock has to play the struggling person learning to cope with a difficult situation who has had terrible past experiences. The exact character from Speed and 90 days. I guess a lesser known cast could have served them better.

Apart from that, the only possible flaw that this movie had was the impression that Chinese products actually work. (You’ll get it if you’ve seen the movie.)  Amazing cinematography, Amazing soundtrack and a visual treat, Gravity, following Life of Pi, is a movie which does not use 3D as a gimmick and leaves you with a feeling of awe and wonderment, the same one generated by previous greats like Jurassic Park and Star Wars.

9.4/10