“In space no one can hear you scream,” was the marketing slogan for Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic sci-fi film Alien. While Alien was a fictional representation of a futuristic encounter with a violent extraterrestrial, the slogan is still 100% grounded in reality. No matter how one looks at it, space is a scary and dangerous place, a lonesome expanse of nothingness, a place where no one can hear you scream.
Director Alfonso Cuaron’s latest film, Gravity, deals with the realities of surviving in space. And much like space itself, it is a scary and lonesome experience. But within that terror is something beautiful and special.
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star as astronauts Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski on a mission to install something on the Hubble Space Telescope. While the two are working on the massive satellite, word comes through that the Russians have destroyed one of their satellites, which has started a chain reaction hurling space debris towards the mission location. Unable to escape the high-speed trash in time, the shuttle and its work structure are ripped apart sending Stone tumbling uncontrollably into the darkness.
This opening sequence is amazingly effective, despite having been used extensively in the promotion of the film. Cuaron smartly frames much of this so that viewers can see Stone’s terrified face while at the same time giving them the same sense of disorientation as the character. It is all the more effective because Bullock sells it completely, breathing heavily and acting appropriately panicked. I got the same feeling watching her terrifying slight away from Earth as I do during great horror films: my stomach was in my throat. It wouldn’t be the last time I felt that way.
Clooney, as the only other actor in the film giving a live performance, is charming as always but despite sharing the top billing with Bullock, this is Sandra’s movie through and through. The film is an emotional roller coaster tied directly to Bullock’s performance. When she was scared, I was right there with her and when she felt relieved, I did too. Clooney’s Kowalski does serve an important function. His presence, as an experienced astronaut, has a calming effect on Bullock’s Stone and as such, also on the viewer.
Bullock and Clooney are amazing actors and their performances in Gravity are riveting, but the real stars of the film are Cuaron’s visuals. The film is phenomenal looking, with the Earth being shown at different angles and at different times of the day. In daytime, the blues and greens of the oceans and land are amazingly vibrant, while at night you see the orange glow of civilization on the ground, and it is a thing of beauty to look at. For as wondrous as it looks, it is the sense of scale that is most impressive. Seeing Ryan, Kowalski, a space shuttle or even the International Space Station up against the Earth made me feel so small, which just adds to the terror of being trapped in space.
From start to finish, Gravity gets it all right. The acting is great, the visuals are top notch, and it maintains a constant level of intensity that made the film scarier than most horror films. Few films deliver on their promise like Gravity does and that makes it something special, something to be celebrated.
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