In space no one can hear you. A quotable phrase, no doubt. A cliche, but as true as day turning to night.
Another truism is that of the relationship between the critic and the reader. As a reviewer it's easy to get tangled in to the web of my own ideas and importance. Clearly there's a historian angle that provides a certain leverage to what I do, what we do. If my knowledge was (theoretically) encyclopedic would I find it a lot easier to rank films in the IMDB Top 50 of my mind?
Harder to place is HOW DOES ALL THIS MAKE YOU FEEL.
Of course what anyone wants out of reading this review can be divided into two camps. An over-effusive praise marathon or an entertaining jaw-buster. But really what I write, and more likely what your favourite journal/ magazine/ website scribe writes, is there to validate what YOU the reader expects of us. If you love a film, you want to hear that others do too. Likewise if you hate it.
I digress.
The problem with a film like Gravity even before the first frame takes centre stage is one of expectations. When a modern piece of art builds up a head of steam, loved or loathed, the internet takes reins and builds up a fortress around it. It's what sites like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes help to make the noise stick.
In that regard Alfonso Cuaron' latest is unbreakable. Its fanbase is ever swelling, the oscar buzz deafening (although a few months early).
And much of it is understandable. The film is presented in three formats. 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. It is not hyperbolic to call it one of the most visually outstanding pictures you're ever likely to see, especially on a technical level. DoP, Emmanuel Lubezki lights each shot so beautifully (also a feature of his work with Terrence Malick) and brightly that the 3D of this film is perhaps the most vital since Hugo and maybe even back to Avatar. Cuaron deserves immense credit also for miraculous craftsmanship of an opening 15-20 min shot which looks to me at least to be seamless.
The Avatar comparisons don't stop there. I remember coming out of that particular 3D experience for the first time being pretty bowled over by it. Especially so on an IMAX screen. It's a giddy feeling to swept away by beauty on a heightened plane, gliding above the tropopause of all the mere mortals beneath it.
So why is there a 7/10 at the bottom of the review?
Well for all the visual majesty, the pen has been left at home.
This is not Y Tu Mama Tambien or in fact Children of Men. The issue here is that Cuaron leaves emotional markers as goal posts visible on the horizon and then takes you around full circle to the same landscape. Its as if all conflicts and dilemnas that were set up in the film's first third were laid down solely to force the audience into a response based upon an underdevolped mother-daughter loss/rebirth narrative.
Another issue here is Clooney. There has been an entire spectrum of responses to his performance. To me its essentially Clooney on 'Up In The Air/ Ocean's 11' form which would be fine if he wasn't stuck in impending doom however many miles away from Earth. His happy-go-lucky suavity started of as a useful counterbalance to Sandra Bullock's pensive monotones however as the film hit it's meat-spot I felt it became a distraction which began to remove me from the building tension. Bullock herself does well with what little she has been given to work, but again her rally to her daughter before the final descent, the actor's moment, was somewhat ruined by an auto-pilot script (as opposed to Hank's final moments in Captain Phillips which i'll come to soon enough).
Don't get me wrong, Gravity is intended as popcorn entertainment (this isn't Tarkovsky-lite) and is always enjoyable and at times quite literally breathtaking. Maybe on multiple viewings the issues will iron themselves out for me. However I can't help shake the feeling that the immensity of the EVENT, of the 3D, of the technical splendour would dissipate on multiple viewings, when the visuals have become embedded within my memory and all is left is story.
Will it hold up? At the moment what i'm left with is a Great leap for visual-kind, but not quite the Great film I hoped it would be.
Rating: 7/10 (B-/B)
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