LOST IN SPACE?Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star in ‘Gravity’.
‘Houston, we have another problem’
Cinema
Daniel Carey
‘SEPTEMBER Sundays’, the new book of essays based on the RTÉ radio programme ‘Sunday Miscellany’, includes an account of the Irish connection to Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight in 1961. Nicky Barry recalls that the first man in space is said to have have described Ireland as the friendliest country on earth. Why? Well, apparently thousands of people shouted ‘Come on Down’ as Gagarin passed over Dublin. This was of great interest to the KGB, who were oblivious to the fact that the crowd were GAA fans urging on the Ulster champions in the All-Ireland football final, rather than devotees of the space race calling on the cosmonaut to pay them a visit.
The story is, of course, apocryphal – for one thing, Gagarin made his famous flight in April, while the All-Ireland (then as now) happened in September. But it resonates because, while the fortunes of spacemen have (rather like the Down football team) fluctuated quite a bit since, space continues to fascinate.
This was underlined in early 2013 by the adventures of Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut whose tweets from the International Space Station garnered a huge online following. And the massive interest in ‘Gravity’ means the closing months of the year will keep the great beyond at the centre of popular culture.
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón (who made ‘A Little Princess’, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ and ‘Children of Men’), ‘Gravity’ stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, who are on a routine job outside their space shuttle when disaster strikes.
The opening shot sets things up nicely. Clooney is unflappable veteran Matt Kowalsky. Full of anecdotes about life on earth, he tells Dr Stone (Bullock): “You’re the genius up here – I only drive the bus.” Stone, by contrast, feels like ‘a Chihuahua that’s been tumble-dried’, struggling to keep her lunch down. She’s on repair duty when they’re abruptly ordered to abort the mission due to flying debris. Then they’re cut off from each other, and communications with earth. ‘Ground control to Major Tom’ doesn’t fly in this particular zip code.
‘Gravity’ is a spectacular technical achievement, and the beauty and loneliness of deep space are well captured. The wide shots are gorgeous (some are reminiscent of Commander Hadfield’s tweets), while the mechanics of opening doors and dealing with everyday objects (flying forks are a nice touch) are touched upon too. There’s also enough immediate peril at every turn to keep the nerve-racking narrative tumbling along. There’s a hike to the International Space Station, and then a further trek to the Chinese station as an exit strategy is sought amid declining oxygen and the danger of further debris.
“I hate space,” Dr Stone fumes at one point, a sentiment which would seem to make her an unlikely protagonist – but it works. Much of the time, we’re looking at her upside down, and it was clearly a demanding shoot for the actress. Cuarón’s long-time collaborator, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, has fun messing with the audience’s usual perspective.
Sometimes our expectations are played with too. Dr Stone counts down from five, only to find a lack of fuel leaving her stuck. She finally hears a voice, only to discover it’s a Chinese man based on earth who speaks no English. The enemy here isn’t an alien, and this is more shipwreck than science fiction. But those who get swept up in the drama will be chewing their knuckles.
The script (co-written by Cuarón, who also co-produced and co-edited) isn’t exactly top notch. But there’s enough in the overall package to satisfy most tastes.
