I’ve been mourning the dearth of quality science-fiction for a long time.  Somewhere along the line fantasy became more popular than science, special effects began to overwhelm narrative and personal melodrama became standard storytelling currency. I yearn for the days when a sci-fi film would boast imagination, cool gadgets and / or meaningful situations, decent characters and enough common sense to hang it all together with aplomb (and, hopefully, some style).  Well, Gravity, like Oblivion  earlier in the year, largely succeeds in meeting those specifications.

Visually, Alfonso Cuaron’s film is a masterwork.  From its earliest moments outside a space shuttle Gravity is convincingly orbital, with whirling camerawork which not only frames its astronaut characters as busy worker bees buzzing far above the Earth, but also brings the audience seamlessly inside the characters’ space suit helmets, thus displaying the wonder of their environment from their immediate perspective — and then back outside again.  The gadgetry is also impressive, displaying the fancy and surprisingly fragile machinery as maddeningly mundane, at least when it comes to repairs.  No science-fiction adventure has been so spectacularly mounted since the halcyon era of 2001: A Space Odyssey through the first Star Wars cycle.

The script is not nearly as elegant.  When orbital catastrophe occurs, astronauts George Clooney (a veteran of space) and Sandra Bullock (an inexperienced newbie) have their survival skills put to the supreme test.  The catastrophe in question is one of those doomsday situational scenarios that screenwriters love but which, in all likelihood, will never come to pass.  And even though time becomes crucially important, Bullock in particular doesn’t seem to be able to keep that in mind, despite the absolute desperation of her situation.  The script is never as sensible or realistic as it should have been once things are set in motion.

Be that as it may, Cuaron’s film is still something to see.  Like the best science fiction its basic premise is engaging, thought provoking and spectacularly dramatic.  As odd as it is to picture perky Sandra Bullock in space, she does a fine job embodying the spirit of someone thrilled by the opportunity yet unsettled by the reality of having to work in a hostile environment before having most everything she can literally hang on to essentially explode in her face.  Clooney is, as you would expect, the perfect guy to have around in space: calm, collected, charismatic and chatty.

Gravity is a very good film that will certainly be in the running for year-end award contests. Even with a formulaic script it is as fresh and original as anything that Hollywood is able to produce nowadays.   ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  18 November 2013.