It feels misleading to describe Gravity as a “simple” film. It’s a survival tale, a story built not on character drama and plot twists but on the fundamental, bloody-minded human need to fight for life. The minimalist storyline is at odds with the wide expanse of outer space that is the film’s setting. Gravity’s dizzyingly effective and gorgeously innovative cinematography creates a unique film: one that deftly captures the sense of scale and isolation.
The film’s simplicity lends it power. It’s the kind of film that you don’t watch so much as experience; when Dr Stone (Sandra Bullock) is sent spiralling on an uncontrolled trajectory into space, you share her nausea. When her oxygen supplies run low and she struggles for air, drowning in CO2, it’s impossible not to feel tight of breath. When she gasps for air, you breathe deeply with her; Gravity is an intense film, but it’s not relentless. It gives you time to breathe.
It’s also not perfect. The characterisation is necessarily spare, but the inevitable character arc feels slightly contrived. Some shots are a little on-the-nose (one particular scene aims to evoke the womb with distracting unsubtlety). But as an experience, its power is second-to-none.
ccpopculture 
I didn’t read this since I am going to go see it tomorrow – I hope I like it as much as the trailer….
Well, I deliberately didn’t give much away (it’s a hard film to write about because you don’t want to go into much – any – detail about the plot). I hope you like it too – going to do a review?
Yep!
Very much looking forward to this, only heard good things!
It’s great! I think it didn’t quite match the very high expectations I had going in, but it was still once of the best films of the year for me.
I’ll try to remember to come back and read this after I actually watch the film. 😉 (not out until November 8th here. Grrr!)
I hate whenever film release dates are so far behind the rest of the world! I deliberately was very vague on plot details here since I posted this a few hours before the US release date even (it was released on the same day in the US and Australia, but we live in the “future”). Ah well, you have plenty of time to build up your expectations! I hope it meets them 😉
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