The Movie: Gravity (2013)
Studio: Warner Bros.
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Starring: Sandra Bullock as Ryan Stone, George Clooney as Matt Kowalski, Ed Harris as Mission Control
Screenwriters: Alfonso Cuaron and Jonás Cuarón
RottenTomatoes: 98% MetaCritic: 96/100
Snippet from My Review: (read my full review here)
[F]or as much as I love Steven Price‘s score, it’s entirely unnecessary after the opening sequence hammered home the effectiveness of silence. The sound artists have the audio covered as evidenced early by the low, barely audible hum of bolts being unscrewed heard over the astronauts’ dialogue, and even more so as a field of satellite debris is hurtling through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour without a sound, remaining silent as they smash into the shuttle. Your heart begins to race. The entire audience is tense and you can feel it. What isn’t needed is artificial sound and yet, Cuaron goes back to it time and again.
The dialogue is also a sore spot. At one point Stone mentions how Kowalsky simply won’t shut up. I felt the same way and am surprised Cuaron did not. While I certainly could have watched this film without any dialogue whatsoever, cutting the number of spoken words by half would have definitely improved the overall project.
That said, for every slight misstep the film faces, the moments of tension are so absolutely harrowing you can almost feel your muscles tighten. While it’s essentially a film that builds to one perilous scene after another, these scenes are so well done it doesn’t really matter. However, the final scene is one that will probably have a lot of audience members throwing their hands in the air and saying, “Really?” Not because it’s unrealistic, but more so because it’s just one more obstacle in the way of survival that doesn’t seem entirely necessary.
Starter Questions
Here are a few questions to help get the conversation started.
1.) Do you agree with me that the score could have been toned way down after the opening seconds or would you prefer it was left in throughout?
2.) A lot of people are praising Sandra Bullock’s performance. Personally I thought she was fine, but nothing terribly great. Where do you stand?
3.) Were there any overwhelming thematic points you too away or did you purely see the film as a visual extravaganza?
Now share your thoughts on the film in the comments below and feel free to include spoilers.
