As a cinematic exercise there’s nothing in 2013 to compare it to (save J.C. The use of 3-D, the level of depth found buried within each of Emmanuel Lubezki’s ( The Tree of Life) stirring, hypnotic images, the way Cuarón’s and Mark Sanger’s editing seamlessly blends one moment into the next, the photorealistic layering of the impressively tactile visual effects, it’s all astonishing. There have been few celluloid achievements close to as amazing as what is brought to the screen by Cuarón in Gravity. The idea of being lost in a void alone and with almost no hope of coming out alive is one virtually everyone, everywhere has probably felt at one point or another, the director playing upon those fears masterfully the finished movie a 90-minute marvel that held me spellbound for every solitary second. It’s thrilling stuff, Cuarón ratcheting up tension with inventive simplicity unleashing sequence after sequence of beauteous suspense and terror that, even with the off-world interstellar setting, is immediately relatable on an intimately visceral level. Ryan Stone is trapped, running out of oxygen, running out of options and quickly running out of time, forced to use her wits, smarts and will to find a way back to the surface of the planet when chances of doing so border on nil. Things change rapidly throughout director and co-writer Alfonso Cuarón’s ( Children of Men, Y Tu Mamá También) existential survivalist outer space thriller Gravity, but in the end as far as plot goes that’s absolutely it.
Stone has been cut off from Kowalski, drifting perilously out into the deep, dark void with almost no chance of survival. Debris from a recently destroyed satellite has started a chain reaction throughout the atmosphere, pieces of additional space garbage orbiting around the Earth like lethal mini-bullets.