Gravity
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Writer: Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón
Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris

Plot:
Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is an engineer on her first space mission. She’s accompanied by seasoned astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney). As they’re working on the repairs they were sent up for, space debris hits them badly and Ryan drifts off. And that’s only just the start of their fight to survive and return home.

Before going into the film I heard a whole lot of good things about it and my expectations were accordingly extremely high. And I am happy to report that, contrary to most other films where you go in with high expextations, I left Gravity completely satisfied.

I’m not easily won over by fantastic visuals if the story isn’t up to snuff as well. If the story is good and the visuals are great as well, awesome. But the visuals alone probably won’t make a movie work for me. In this case the story is nothing that we haven’t seen in one way or another a million times already. But we have never quite seen it like this.

Cuarón manages to make it feel at once agoraphobic and clautrophobic. He makes space feel utterly realistic and makes it actually feel like you’re there as well. And I have never seen 3D used to such an advantage in a live action movie, ever. And since you’re so caught up in the way the movie looks, feels and makes you look at its story, it doesn’t matter that the plot itself is a bit tired, if beautifully executed.

Another point in favor of the film is also the wonderful cast. George Clooney is wonderfully likeable, but it’s Sandra Bullock who owns every frame of every second of the film, even the ones she isn’t really in. She was fantastic and she really sells her character. You can go along with her and you can go along with her emotions and her character development.

All of that meant that I spent the movie crying and scared and tense as hell. And I loved it.

Summarizing: The praise really isn’t exaggerated. See for yourself.