Mission control at Houston represented by the voice of Ed Harris, who played astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff is in contact, and things are on course: Kowalsky is doing his charming old-timer stick, with some self-consciously goofy anecdotes. Houston informs them of an impending threat, debris from an exploded Russian satellite that is heading their way. In what seems like no time, disaster strikes, and the graceful movement and easygoing human contact explodes into chaos: Kowalsky and Stone are left floating in space, scrambling for their lives. Kowalsky, the experienced campaigner, has a plan; Stone does her best to execute that plan.
English movie Gravity has a quite bit in common with the film all Is Lost,, the closing night feature at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival, which will be released in Australia early next year. All Is Lost is the story of a man adrift at sea, using all his wits to survive, and it's almost free of dialogue: Robert Redford, the sole cast member, is a man of few words, and he barely talks to himself. And it's a film without backstory.
The Movie Gravity, on the other hand, makes use of dialogue to develop character, setting up exchanges between these two colleagues suddenly plunged into the desperate intimacy of survival: Kowalsky, the old pro, prods Stone to tell him about herself. It's his way of helping to bolster her will, to affirm her sense of connection with the world they are seeking to return to. There are positives and negatives to this aspect of the film; there are some wonderful shared moments, but there's also something a little forced about the backstory that has been created for Stone.
This Gravity movie work with striking close-ups and elegant tracking shots, they combine sound and silence, humour and fear, a figurine of Marvin the Martian and an image of the Earth. It's a wonderful achievement- and what's more, its a movie that makes the best possible use of 3D.