Gravity

Gravity

There are certain films that you know are so well made that you feel that you should like them more than you do.  For me, Gravity is one of those films.

The movie is spectacular, disorienting, overwhelming and amazingly well put together.  (It is particularly visually awe-inspiring in IMAX.)

It’s also, I’m sorry, just a little bit dull.

Two people alone, floating through space, often separated from each other, rarely talking…  The life and death stakes are huge, but the dramatic situation can’t make up for an hour and a half in near pitch black with rather repetitive action and very little conversation.

I found my mind wandering, and in a story as vital and visual as this one, that should not happen.

I respect Gravity.  It is an amazingly well made and gorgeously filmed and acted movie.  It deserves the critical acclaim that it will undoubtedly receive.  I would not be at all surprised to find the film right in the middle of the Oscar races next year.

I just wish I could say that I enjoyed the experience more.

The story is as simple as can be.  Astronauts Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) are working on the Hubble space telescope when the explosion of a Russian space station sends masses of space debris right at them.

Stone is blown into space with no tether, she is literally floating through gravity with no way to get back to the ship.  And even if she could, the debris has debilitated the spaceship.

How can they possibly make it back down to Earth?

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