Gravity: A Review

Originally published at viewspaper -"Gravity-A must watch"
 
Something More Than A Sci-Fi

Every time I think of Alfonso Cuarón’s film Gravity, I can feel the goose bumps on my skin. No words can describe how overwhelmed I was after seeing this movie. Adding to my excitement was Sandra Bullock (Ryan Stone) and George Clooney’s (Matt Kowalski) performance who played the characters of a medical Engineer and a senior astronaut respectively.

I have always been enchanted by the idea of space but never realised the many difficulties that astronauts have to face. I knew about the challenges but it was only after watching this movie that I realized, that going to space isn’t a joy ride. The picturisation in Gravity is such that you will not want to flutter your eye lashes lest you miss even a second of the film .

Almost all the reviews claim that Gravity is a science fiction movie (sc-fi). However,I can assure you that it is anything but sci-fi. The movie is realistic and does not restrict itself to talking  about the technicalities of space shuttles and rockets. It starts off as a documentary but as it picks up the pace you realize that the core factor of the movie is its emotional quotient.
The movie is all about Ryan and Matt’s struggle and how cleverly they plan to travel back to Earth. The hurdles they face during the journey are extremely dangerous. They oscillate between life and death every second making the viewers sit at the edge of their seats.
Personally speaking I was touched by Matt’s inspirational discussions with Ryan especially after he finds out that all their co-astronauts are dead, and even the chances of their survival are minimal. I was caught in  Matt’s charm and almost fell in love with Ryan’s and Matt’s attitude towards life and their courage.
As surprising as it may sound, I was literally in tears when Matt  talks to Ryan over the radio after she finally manages to go to Russian Soyuz. I can never forget the dialogue, “You should learn to let go Ryan.You can do it. It’s not rocket science.”

When a German astronaut Urich Walter was asked about his views on the movie, he said that it is tough for an astronaut to keep spinning or drifting in space as we see it in the movie. In fact, a fire in space doesn’t and cannot last for so long and therefore the crash that we see in Gravity should have killed everyone. On the other hand, he agrees that the movie is shot hyper realistically and there is no denying that it captures most of the facts.


However, I did think that the movie ended abruptly. Houston is not shown at all and Ryan stands up as soon as she touches land, something which I don’t think is scientifically possible.
Despite its small flaws Gravity is sure to leave you stumped. I, for one, watched it twice and that too in 3D. This is indeed the most enchanting movie of the year and is sure to grab many awards.  So if you haven’t seen it yet then you better catch this epic movie today!