Gravity
"How is this a movie?" I thought. "What happens? How can they just sustain that for 90 minutes?" Then I factored in the heavyweight star power in the film and really couldn't guess what was going to happen.
All I knew, was that I was going to see that film as soon as possible.
It was a refreshing inner monologue to have because after most film trailers, even for films I am interested in still seeing, I know, pretty much what is going to happen in the film by the end and what kind of film it is. Gravity was different though. I didn't have a clue.
I am a big fan of Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian action drama Children of Men and he's the only man to make a satisfactory Harry Potter film so I knew, with the director, I was in safe and interesting hands. I am also an unabashed George Clooney disciple, believing the man to have pretty impeccable taste in scripts and projects to work on (seriously, listen to my 'When Clooney met the Coens podcast' he's my man crush). Sandra Bullock is a great comedienne and can pretty much raise the standard of any generic rom-com or action-com she takes part in. I haven't seen a lot of her "serious, worthy" films and I don't want to but "an interesting choice" I thought and a good fit with Clooney.
So what was going to happen in this mysterious space film?
Well, I am not going to tell you here. If you're looking for spoilers or plot points then you've come to the wrong place because it's best to go into Gravity fresh and ready for anything. What I can tell you is that it is one of the most breath taking, nerve shredding, tension sustaining, technically advanced and most complex directed film, I think, I have ever seen. I would need to watch it again, not because of any twisty turny story developments but to try and wrap my brain around just the level of organisation and unfathomable skill that went into creating this heart pounding 90 minutes.
It is a sublime magic trick of a film because, unlike the cartoonish nonsense of, say, Avatar or Abrams' Star Trek you just, quite reasonably, assume that Clooney, Bullock and Cuarón filmed the whole thing in ACTUAL SPACE. Cuarón realises that to wow and amaze with CGI and modern special effects, you don't need to go hog wild and create insane worlds and multi-headed monsters, just make a seemingly realistic and simple film, set in space. He did the same thing to similar wonderful effect in Children of Men. It's not what you see, it's what you don't realise you've seen. You take everything for granted in a Cuarón film and buy the world completely, it's only later that you stop and think "Wait?! how on EARTH did they do that?!"
In an age where everyone knows "oh yeah, they just draw that stuff on a computer, right?" (you know, like ANYONE could do it effortlessly) it takes real skill to hush those tongues and drag the audience, spellbound and quiet as amazed church mice, into your film.
There is a similar trick that the story pulls and that is that, with so few cast members, you know somebody, logically and presumably, is making it to the end of this film alive but that never holds you back from being on the edge of your seat, biting your knuckles or gripping the hand of your loved one next to you, every time peril rears it's ugly head.
Peril's ugly head
The acting, too, is fantastic, with Sandra Bullock, especially, giving, to quote EVERY critic on the planet, the performance of her career. Hell! the performance of anyone's career! For the physical strain, it must have been to make this film, alone she deserves all the Oscars Billy Crystal can quickly polish and shove into the back of a Lexus. That's not to say Clooney's a slouch but it becomes pretty apparent why they cast him after just a few lines of dialogue, in a pleasing, welcome way.
Again, like Children of Men, the film is a mix of genres. It gave me more of a jolt and locked me rigid with tension more than any horror film of recent times, it has enough action in it to please any of John McClane's ardent admirers and it's also an achingly beautiful science fiction film, with critics throwing around 2001: A Space Odyssey comparisons like happy, pretentious puppies with a Kubrick designed squeeze toy. It may just be Clooney, the minimalist cast and an emotional theme of the film but referencing Solaris, in an attempt to seem smart and educated, might be slightly more apt actually.
It is in the emotional, character based thread of the film's narrative, though, that the first tiny, critical comment must be made because the slightly over-egged and obvious motivations of Bullock's character and the emotional journey she undertakes, is not as deep, fleshed out, or as relevant as the film thinks it is. I would argue it's the physical journey, and the mental struggle and dilemma that produces, that is a more satisfying and watchable than her emotional one. However, like all good sci-fi, there's lots of layers to the thing and you can enjoy what you want about it. I just didn't think the script or dialogue was particularly strong when dealing with a certain topic, that will remain unnamed here.
It's a film all about connections though, in more ways than one, and the ultimate connection we must make with our own lives. That being said, it's also, pleasingly, about hair raising stunts and explosions in space. Unusually, if I urge you to go see this film at all, it's for that, latter reason, the sheer, jaw dropping, spectacle of it all.
Get Low and The American - Films at 30,000 feet - 21st march 2011
I thought I'd write them up as one blog because despite being very different stories and with very different tones they are the sorts of films you definitely need to be in the same, mellow, cerebral mood for and, when in the appropriate mood, if you ever want to watch brilliant actors, stunningly shot, working with minimalistic, simple scripts but creating literal moving pieces of art then you could do a lot worse than these two movies.
Get Low is about an old man, the always excellent Robert Duvall, who lives in a cabin in the woods, more or less as a hermit, behind a strongly defended 'Do Not Trespass' sign and about whom thousands of stories have developed over time. When he gets news that a friend of his has passed away it gets him thinking about the end of it all and the one last thing he must get done before his time is up. He devises the first living funeral where he invites everyone to come tell stories about him and he enlists Bill Murray's funeral home to help him when the church turns him down. We eventually find out all sorts of stuff about this complex yet down to earth individual and he has time to face the public, crush any silly rumours and make amends with the people he needs to.
It is simple story telling at its finest, nothing too flashy here as it is the characters that we are drawn in by, that and obviously solving the riddle of the story he has to tell. It is beautifully filmed, some stunning cinematography and some excellent work with light and shadows.
Obviously from the accents to the folky soundtrack all the 1930s, small southern town cliches are in place and there's nothing necessarily new about any of it but much like Duvall's last film, Crazy Heart, it is all in the performance, the mood and the desire to go from A to B with a sturdy tale, a bit of humour and a slight dash of old-timey philosophy that basically all adds up to an engaging, sweet film, the sort that it seems unusual now get made amongst all the pirates, robots, 3D animations and horror remakes.
If you fancy an early Sunday evening film that will make you crack an occasional smirk and put you in a calm, contemplative mood then Get Low is for you.
8 out of 10 squirrels roastin' on a spit outside this 'ere barn of mine
The plot is simple, the script is almost non-existant and the message of the film, if it has one, is vague at best but, like I said before, if you're in the right mood and through the right eyes this is an engaging, gripping and stunning piece of film making.
Clooney is 'The American" a gunsmith/gun for hire working in Europe and sort of sick of either killing people or working on the guns that eventually kill people, after being hunted down by some Swedes from a previous, possibly botched job, he is sent to a small Italian village where he is told to wait for instructions and to get professional again, as it is his recent lapses into attempting a social/private life have jeopardised his cover. Well he sort of ignores that advice as the lure of being a normal human again is too strong and he befriends a local priest and a prostitute.
He agrees to one last job, the making of a highly specialised automatic gun and goes about possibly making a home for himself here, or at least somewhere away from all the death.
Like most European movies there is nudity and existential conversations but also, along with that, there is quite a bit of action too, some of it reminiscent of recent films like Bourne and The Transporter series while hardly being as adrenaline fueled as either. These show us that even at his age and with the worries his bosses have of him becoming sloppy, he is, actually still a highly effective operative.
There are also lots and lots of montages of George building the gun and these serve to humanise the character that, as an audience, we might not like very much considering what he does and how little repentance he has for it all. We see that first and foremost he is a craftsman, a skilled labourer and, in some ways an artist. It just so happens his art of choice is also capable of violent death.
Like most films of this ilk it is all left open enough and vague enough with all mumbled half sentences and wistful prose that you can read any sort of philosophical message into it that you like but also, it is filmed beautifully and acted just right that you really want to see Georgey boy succeed, get the girl, buy the priest an enormous new hat and ride off into the sunset.
It'll depend on how many 70s films or art-house films you've seen about assassins whether you think that happens or not.
I wasn't expecting to enjoy it and I did, a lot. I thought this and Get Low were just wonderful, calming, interesting and pleasingly different films both with familiar stories that benefit hugely from simple clear direction and superb acting.
8 out of 10 bowls of 'what's it all about?' spaghetti
Points from The Wife 8 out of 10