**Spoilers Alert**
The film begins with us meeting Rhian (Bullock) and Matt (Clooney) working on a project in space. Rhian is doing most of the work while Matt circles around the shuttle, making light of their mission. Matt is a very suave, confident man who's no newbie when it comes to space travel. It's revealed that this is his last mission before retirement. Rhian, on the other hand, is a new traveller who's on her first mission in space. We can quickly tell that she is nervous and feeling queezy trying to get used to the whole no-gravity environment. Within minutes, they are ordered to get back to the shuttle as debris from an exploding satellite is heading straight towards them. They don't make it in time and the debris destroys their shuttle. Rhian is tossed into space and is spinning continuously away from the shuttle. She cannot get a visual of anything and is all alone.
The point of view shifts immediately to Rhian, and there are points throughout the film when we see what she is seeing out of her helmet. Matt goes to rescue Rhian and together, they make their way to a nearby international space station using his jet pack. Unfortunately, they cannot grab a hold of the space station when they arrive, and are being pulled away. The jet pack is out of fuel and they have no source of power to control their movements. Rhian gets caught in the strings of a parachute, and attempts to hold onto Matt as he is being pulled away into space. Matt realizes she will go with him if they stay like this and as a result, he detaches himself and floats away from Rhian and the station. This inadvertently leads to his death. Rhian from this point on, is truly alone.
The film did a great job capturing the scare and the anxiety that goes into this kind of situation. Sandra Bullock was fantastic in going through the emotions of someone completely trapped with no way out. You can definitely feel her panic, and are able to relate with it as she keeps pushing and pushing for way back to Earth. George Clooney, on the other hand, lacked depth and character development. He was in the film for a very short period of time and I was not able to connect with his character. I don't feel he did enough from an emotional standpoint to capture the audience's sympathy. This was very much all about Sandra Bullock. We learn a lot about her history and throughout the film, she shifts from being this scared, depressed woman to a strong, ambitious survivor.
The storyline, for me, was a little far-fetched. At one point, I asked "Does Rhian just have a giant black cloud over her head?" Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. As soon as we thought she has a way out, something else happens (a fire in the station, no fuel, more debris, rocket is attached to the parachute and can't move, etc). It got to a point where you couldn't help but wonder if the director was just trying to drag this out as much as possible. Rhian finally manages to survive and get back to Earth (even that goes wrong when she lands in the water, but she ends up ok). The film ends with her standing up on land and walking towards a field.
The visual effects of this film are stunning. To be honest, that is going to be the biggest highlight of this production. When the action sequences took place and you followed the characters in space, the camera did a fantastic job in capturing the beauty of Earth and space, but also the danger that went into the situation. It was definitely made for 3D (similar to Avatar) once you saw all the debris come in.
I don't think it's enough to win some of the bigger categories in next year's Oscars, but I am confident we will see Gravity on the nominations list for several of them. I definitely recommend seeing it regardless. It was an experience because you very much feel like you are in space with Rhian. However, that goes hand in hand with the visuals. The visuals definitely make this film.
My Rating: B+
