The 10 best films of 2013, joint 3rd – Gravity
Sandra Bullock's down-to-Earthiness and some stunning special effects raise Alfonso Cuarón's space thriller above the rest, in our continuing countdown of this year's top 10 films
Andrew Pulver
Tuesday 17 December 2013 15.21 GMT
Andrew Pulver
Tuesday 17 December 2013 15.21 GMT
When Gravity finally dropped at the Venice film festival earlier this year, it answered a question that had been perplexing the film world for quite some time: was this long-in-the-making space thriller going to be a gigantic disaster, a folie de grandeur from fast-talking Mexican writer-director Alfonso Cuarón who, despite his impassioned rhetoric, was not necessarily considered the most reliable reins-holder in town?
Well, within minutes of the lights going down, sighs of relief could be heard all around the auditorium – or perhaps it was the first sobbing gasps of terror as the audience, pinned back in their seats, realised what was in store for the two doughty astronauts, played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, stranded high above Earth. Cuarón, who had been plugging away on the film for several years, and who had opted to develop entirely new lighting and visual effects techniques to convincingly portray the extra-terrestrial settings, was entitled to feel triumphant, and the film's subsequent box-office performance will have more than satisfied his masters.
With the benefit of hindsight, what Cuarón pulled off is properly extraordinary. Spending vast amounts of money on – and perfectly realising – box-fresh documentary-style visuals which put the viewer right up there in the space shuttle alongside astronauts Ryan Stone (Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (Clooney) is the first, and most obviously impressive achievement. Then, to construct a nerve-shredding thriller that – science quibbles aside – refused to adopt any of the standard sci-fi tricks usually employed by space-set films. More than that, to somehow nudge the narrative into an area that – while not quite Kubrickian – allowed for some heavyweight philosophical/spiritual musing on death and rebirth. And finally – to do all this with Sandra Bullock, queen of quirk, in the driving seat. Though she was by no means first choice for the role, Bullock has turned out to be absolutely inspired casting, injecting a quotidian human warmth to the role that, possibly, may have been lacking had Angelina Jolie, the original lead, not jumped ship.
Gravity, if we're being honest, is not perfect: there are one too many clunking narrative nudges, particularly in the fleshing out of Stone's backstory, which are designed no doubt to ease the minds of studio executives anxious the film would not be relatable enough to be a mainstream hit. But no matter: the immersive brilliance of those zero-grav scenes is without equal – certainly this year, and possibly the entire century to date.
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