Gravity (2013)

Director Alfonso Cuaron's first film since the excellent 2007 feature Children of Men. It was Alfonso's son Jonas who convinced his father to get back in the directors saddle and make this film which the two of them co-wrote. It is the story of a disaster in space, (which not to give too much away is the Russians fault) that strands two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) in space and kills the rest of their shuttle crew. The film is done in close to real time, and is quite hart ponding, it has a kinetic off kilter cinematography as there is no up and down in space and your constantly moving. It is technically very much a triumph, the space effects mostly quite convincing and with the glut of making of DVD features anymore I am usually not interested in how visual effects are achieved, I've seen it all, but this one I am genially curious to learn more about.

There is not a ton to the plot, if the movie can be said to be about anything its about the will to live, and of course the visual experience. The writing is a little bit lazy in shoe horning in a stock back story for the Bullock character, but her performance is quite strong, this looks like it would have been an exhausting shoot and she certainly conveys the sense of strain someone in her characters position would undoubtedly be feeling, George Clooney meanwhile coasts by mostly on charm. Defiantly a film worth seeing on the big screen and in the 3D  format it was shot in, its a film that conveys pretty much everything its got to say to you directly on screen so there is not a lot of subtext to analyze. Its one of those movies that is an experience more then anything. ***1/2