Gravity

Alfonso Cuarón is a seriously talented director. He was the man behind the only Harry Potter film that you would call world class and his last film, 2006's Children of Men, contained some of the greatest directed set pieces since the turn of the century. It's a shame for us all that this is only his third film in the last ten years, though they say quality is more important than quantity and Cuarón confirms such an adage with his latest. Gravity tells the story of astronauts Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Kowalsky (Clooney) who, during a spacewalk, find themselves at the mercy of hurtling space debris which destroys their space shuttle and leaves them with the serious problem of how on earth do they, well, get back to Earth. Despite a great performance from Bullock (Clooney's cheeky chappy act feels a bit old hat these days) this is all about Cuarón and its the film of the year in respect of it's technical achievements. Visually stunning from start to finish, the film juxtaposes the beauty of space with the helplessness of the astronauts situation. The planning, care and execution of the production is up there for all to see (to wit, the special effects took three years and there's over 1.8 million (1.8 million!) LED lights employed to simulate how light is reflected in the thermosphere) and coupled with Emmanuel Lubezki's excellent cinematography even watching this in 3D doesn't ruin the overall presentation. So that's enough about the visuals, what about the sound? As the informed (or, at least people who have seen 2001) will know, there's no sound in space, which Cuarón adhere's to though the films score appears in certain scenes to help rack up the tension (and there's also a cheeky wink in respect of an ear piercing high pitched note that Cuarón kicks the whole thing off with). One of Cuarón's trademarks is long continuous (or at least seemingly continuous) takes and this is full of them, the opening shot alone lasting for 13 minutes. On that note the script, in respect of actual words spoken, is more to do with telling the storyline as opposed to any memorable lines, which might explain a hallucination scene that occurs at one point which is such a terrible mis-step it prevents me giving this a higher rating. Whilst we're on the bad stuff the thematic elements of death and rebirth may be a bit too arty for some tastes, but they're aren't many more negatives after that. Cuarón has understandably taken some liberties in respect of the science involved regarding space exploration, though real life astronauts have been queuing up to heap praise on its realism. To sum up, can Alfonso Cuarón be forced to direct at least one film per year in the future? Rating: 8/10.