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During a space mission, the astronauts Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalsky find themselves lost in space following a storm of debris that has hit and heavily damaged their spaceship. Away from the safety of the spaceship, they have to face an incredible challenge in order to survive and go back home.

This is a movie of darkness and stars. The space transcends its status of unknown dimension to become a constellation of symbols; it can be seen as a cot, a movie theatre and, perhaps, a space of the mind, where the doubts and fears of the characters dissolve. Space can be considered as everything, with planets stars and celestial bodies, and nothing, with silence and infinite emptiness. This endless emptiness, and its solitude, is incredibly cold and makes everything unmovable and unmoved, with the characters wondering in every direction trying to find a way to survive.

Cuaròn, the Academy Award winning director of the movie, uses lights and camera shots in both continuous sequences or interrupted ones, delineating a marvellous and terrible space where the man and the woman are put in.  Ryan Stone, interpreted by Sandra Bullock is suffers, dies and revives spiritually in what is a challenge that has put her life in her own hands, guided and helped by her colleague Matt Kowalksy, interpreted by George Clooney, an immovable dreamer that never loses hope and motivates Ryan in many occasions. Matt and Ryan are two white dots in space lost in emptiness, and together they coexist with their doubts and occasional humour.

The undeniable virtuosity of technical and sound aspects are not an end in themselves, because the surrounding conceptual framework is solid. The themes of salvation and hope become intimate within the characters, hidden among the stars, dug in the feverish look of a woman who has to overcome a trauma of the past to return home. The "space" has never been so similar to the “land” where the two fight against their own spiritual and mental selves: the fear of returning, the fear of living, the fear of dying. Earth and sky are nothing but life and death, but death is never the solution if life insists and tests you with all of its urgency, and forces you to move, to do something and to fight.

The screenplay follows Ryan emotional transformation through the help of Matt; the removal of the interior obstacle is the only way to overcome external obstacles of a hostile and dangerous environment. Yet the first part of the movie has more to it than well-completed tasks in order to survive; it uses its visuals and narrative at the same time making it different from the entire "space" movie featuring plenty, plenty of action, as the background of “Gravity” does not replace the drama of the protagonist, but incorporates it. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same of the second part, which takes a slightly different path, evolving into a typically Hollywoodian sequence of dramatized movements and special effects in crescendo, leading to an unexpected, consistent and emotional ending.

The excess of action and special effects is however not too overwhelming, and it is lightened up with a poetic and ironic sequence led by George Clooney, in order to make the spectator enjoy the film for a variety of different reasons, not just because of its astonishing visual effects.

Image credits: https://hashem.com/the-hidden-cosmic-code-of-gravity/