FILM
Gravity
(12A) 91mins
★★★★★
IN A NUTSHELL
Director Alfonso Cuaron takes CGI to a new level with his spellbinding 3D space adventure.
REVIEW
The curious thing about Alfonso Cuaron's majestic and spellbinding space odyssey is the absence of doom.
Peril, yes, and tension, certainly, but doom? It's not that Sandra Bullock's attempt to get back to earth from space is a simple hop, skip and jump - especially as a hop, skip and jump are not so simple in zero-G.
But, here's the thing. If one is to shuffle off this mortal coil then there can be few better journeys than to drift into the endless void, lulled into oxygen-deprived sleep with the stars as a backdrop and the brilliant blue marble as your night light.
The film does confront this dilemma head-on. Bullock's Dr Ryan Stone has every reason to surrender to the serenity.
In space, where the act of living is sheer, miserable graft, she can forget her personal grief. And as death becomes inevitable, she understands that to close her eyes is to be reunited with her daughter.
But the title of the film sums up the subtext. There's always something pulling us back, pulling us home.
Stone and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney laying on the charm) are carrying out repairs on the Hubble telescope when their shuttle is shot through with space debris from an explosion.
Their prospect of rescue comes from an array of habitable space stations dotted here and there, but they, too, are being torn apart by bullets of debris.
That is the plot. The story, is something different. The story is about how a team of film-makers have used photo-real CGI to create the most wondrous 3D spectacle.
If the tug of the film fails - Ryan's spectacular quest to get home becomes less Silent Running and more Indiana Jones - then sit back and enjoy the view.
The technical wizardry of creating a space without up or down - the whoosh, the drift, the clatter - are created with Oscar-baiting brilliance.
Bullock's performance also is something to behold. On her own for much of the film, she has to convey how, in a frictionless environment, she finds the traction, the grip on life, that forces her to ever-greater feats of daring.
This is a remarkable film, gripping, inspiring and breathlessly beautiful.
