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I've had the last week off work as part of the annual birthday/Thanksgiving celebration. During the week, we did a lot of shopping, turkey eating, and football/movie watching. Yes, an outing late in the day (after most of the crowds had thinned) did happen on Black Friday.
In the movie category, I wanted to dash out to see Catching Fire immediately, but the sis wanted to see Gravity. Since I wanted to see it too in the theatre, and since it had already left a number of them, we decided to see that last Saturday.
I'm not entirely sure what I expected out of Gravity going in to the film. I suppose, based on what I'd been hearing, I expected great acting and visuals and "realistic" science fiction. One of the aca-lists I'm on seemed enamored of the fact that there was more science than fantasy in the film. The film largely lived up to my expectations, and yet, it didn't quite capture me as completely as I was expecting.
Bullock and Clooney's performances as scientist Ryan Strong and mission commander Matt Kowalski were both strong. Their characters had traits that made them very sympathetic. Strong lost a daughter in an accidental injury on her school playground. Kowalski was on his last space flight and was a voice of reason and calm in treacherous conditions. Easy to care for and get emotionally invested in their plight and their survival. There were moments in the film that really hit home emotionally for me: when Kowalski is adrift and fading out of radio contact with Stone, when Stone is listening to the voices from Earth on the Russian station and breaking down because she's giving up hope of making it home, her monologue when she is talking to Kowalski and telling him things he needs to tell her daughter.
There were also moments that were visually arresting, and I'm not just talking about the views of Earth from space or the many accidents--all of which were breathtaking. No, I'm thinking more of the quieter moments: when Stone fights her way out of her space suit at the International Space Station after nearly running out of air and losing Kowalski and curls up in a fetal position floating as the camera view looks down on her, when Stone gives up and turns off the oxygen in the Russian escape module and we see her tears floating in the cabin and toward the camera.
So if I liked the acting and characters and visuals, what bothers me about Gravity? Two things really, both related to storytelling.
I loved Prometheus, a film that is difficult to like, because I loved the deep vein of symbolic action and dialogue and images in the film. There are things that happen in the film that sometimes don't make logical/rational sense, but they serve the symbolic/allegorical heart of the film. I adore stories of this kind, and I can forgive some of the leaps of faith that I have to make in order to enjoy them. Prometheus unapologetically is about mythic, resonant ideas, so the message and the storytelling mesh.
However, in Gravity those moments where I savored the symbolic aspect of them felt out of place. They felt intentionally artful, perhaps because the rest of the film is so psychologically and scientifically realistic. They felt like staged tableaus that would crop up in the narrative, so while I was immersed in them while they were happening, getting back to the more gritty aspects jarred me a bit.
One of the other things that bothered me about the narrative was its structure. Things go wrong and keep going wrong over ad over and over again. The shuttle arm is destroyed, and Stone is cut adrift. She can't get home on the shuttle, because it's destroyed. After a harrowing space walk (aided by Kowalski's jetpack) to the International Space Station, Stone loses Kowalski to space and can't get home on the injured escape pod. She gets off in an escape pod just before the whole station is destroyed. The pod is injured so she can only use it to get to the wounded Russian space station. Stone gets there, and gets away in a Russian pod that is also damaged. She has to use it to get to the Chinese station. She gets to the Chinese station, and more things go wrong until she is able to get away in a pod and after nearly drowning after re-entry, she survives.
By the end of the film, I felt as beat up as Stone. Perhaps that was the point, but it makes watching Gravity an exhausting experience. Walking out of the theatre was a little like Stone staggering to her feet back on Earth.
While Gravity was a mixed bag for me, I'm glad that I saw it and that I saw it in the theatre. The large screen and 3D made the experience more immersive, and consequently, the stakes felt higher and the tension was ratcheted up more than it would have been watching at home.
In the movie category, I wanted to dash out to see Catching Fire immediately, but the sis wanted to see Gravity. Since I wanted to see it too in the theatre, and since it had already left a number of them, we decided to see that last Saturday.
I'm not entirely sure what I expected out of Gravity going in to the film. I suppose, based on what I'd been hearing, I expected great acting and visuals and "realistic" science fiction. One of the aca-lists I'm on seemed enamored of the fact that there was more science than fantasy in the film. The film largely lived up to my expectations, and yet, it didn't quite capture me as completely as I was expecting.
Bullock and Clooney's performances as scientist Ryan Strong and mission commander Matt Kowalski were both strong. Their characters had traits that made them very sympathetic. Strong lost a daughter in an accidental injury on her school playground. Kowalski was on his last space flight and was a voice of reason and calm in treacherous conditions. Easy to care for and get emotionally invested in their plight and their survival. There were moments in the film that really hit home emotionally for me: when Kowalski is adrift and fading out of radio contact with Stone, when Stone is listening to the voices from Earth on the Russian station and breaking down because she's giving up hope of making it home, her monologue when she is talking to Kowalski and telling him things he needs to tell her daughter.
There were also moments that were visually arresting, and I'm not just talking about the views of Earth from space or the many accidents--all of which were breathtaking. No, I'm thinking more of the quieter moments: when Stone fights her way out of her space suit at the International Space Station after nearly running out of air and losing Kowalski and curls up in a fetal position floating as the camera view looks down on her, when Stone gives up and turns off the oxygen in the Russian escape module and we see her tears floating in the cabin and toward the camera.
So if I liked the acting and characters and visuals, what bothers me about Gravity? Two things really, both related to storytelling.
I loved Prometheus, a film that is difficult to like, because I loved the deep vein of symbolic action and dialogue and images in the film. There are things that happen in the film that sometimes don't make logical/rational sense, but they serve the symbolic/allegorical heart of the film. I adore stories of this kind, and I can forgive some of the leaps of faith that I have to make in order to enjoy them. Prometheus unapologetically is about mythic, resonant ideas, so the message and the storytelling mesh.
However, in Gravity those moments where I savored the symbolic aspect of them felt out of place. They felt intentionally artful, perhaps because the rest of the film is so psychologically and scientifically realistic. They felt like staged tableaus that would crop up in the narrative, so while I was immersed in them while they were happening, getting back to the more gritty aspects jarred me a bit.
One of the other things that bothered me about the narrative was its structure. Things go wrong and keep going wrong over ad over and over again. The shuttle arm is destroyed, and Stone is cut adrift. She can't get home on the shuttle, because it's destroyed. After a harrowing space walk (aided by Kowalski's jetpack) to the International Space Station, Stone loses Kowalski to space and can't get home on the injured escape pod. She gets off in an escape pod just before the whole station is destroyed. The pod is injured so she can only use it to get to the wounded Russian space station. Stone gets there, and gets away in a Russian pod that is also damaged. She has to use it to get to the Chinese station. She gets to the Chinese station, and more things go wrong until she is able to get away in a pod and after nearly drowning after re-entry, she survives.
By the end of the film, I felt as beat up as Stone. Perhaps that was the point, but it makes watching Gravity an exhausting experience. Walking out of the theatre was a little like Stone staggering to her feet back on Earth.
While Gravity was a mixed bag for me, I'm glad that I saw it and that I saw it in the theatre. The large screen and 3D made the experience more immersive, and consequently, the stakes felt higher and the tension was ratcheted up more than it would have been watching at home.
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So, not moments of respite in the struggle but "pretty bits" or "message moments"? Jarring.
Thanks