Most movies are about relationships. Action films can also double as a buddy movie or a (usually bad) romance. Thrillers and horror films often have characters with deep connections to one another that get severed – literally and metaphorically. Even romances, the uber-relationship movie, have other bonds layered in. So when a movie dares to strip itself of all relationships and focus on one character’s internal and external struggle to live, it’s exceptionally daring.
Gravity is a film that exceeds expectations, and after one hell of teaser trailer, my expectations were pretty high. Marketed as a thriller because visual poem isn’t a niche yet, Alfonso Cuaron’s film focuses on one astronaut trying to get back to Earth. The story is riveting, the special effects memorizing, even the score is breathtaking. Yet the film’s beating heart is Sandra Bullock’s performance as Dr. Ryan Stone. Several actresses turned down the role before Bullock stepped in to fill Dr. Stone’s spacesuit, and the audience is lucky she did.
Even during Dr. Stone’s weakest moments — her silent but visceral freak outs — Bullock radiates the inner strength of the character. Bullock creates, with the most subtle of movements, someone you believe in. And in a movie that could so easily have been over-the-top, her subtlety is the force that grounds the audience’s experience. You forget that you are looking down at Earth, watching one unfathomable event after another as you are tethered to Dr. Stone’s unspoken inner monologue. That’s right, unspoken, because most of the drama takes place in Bullock’s eyes. Flashbacks aren’t needed as she gives short answers about herself to George Clooney’s Matt Kowalski, her commander. The joy, heartache and loneliness of Dr. Stone’s previous life unfolds before the audience in the grace of Bullock’s voice, manner and stare.
It’s refreshing to find a film that challenges the normal conventions of blockbuster films, especially one that is willing to put its weight on the shoulders of a female lead. Bullock doesn’t bow under the burden for even a moment. She carries it elegantly, with such strength and courage it seems weightless.
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