The
movie, Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is a survival
story. Technically well executed, the
special effects showing the destruction of the shuttle and, eventually, the
space stations as they circle the earth, allow the viewer to experience the
hair-raising terror and claustrophobia that accompany a disaster in space.
In
the end, however, the movie was not as emotionally satisfying as it could have
been. This was due to shallow plotting
on the part of the writers. The
protagonist, Ryan Stone (played by Sandra Bullock), is shown to be a broken
person who doesn’t much care whether she lives or dies; her young daughter died
a year or so before this, and she has no family left. As a result, when she finally decides to care
enough to try and survive, and then does survive, when she rises from the mud
in a sort of “I am woman, and I survived” ending; it leaves the viewer
flat. Why should we care for a character
who doesn’t really care for herself, and doesn’t have anything to live for, or anything
to come back to? The character just does
not have a stake in the game.
In
my opinion, it would have been much more satisfying for her to have had a
once-strong and loving relationship with her daughter, which was seriously strained
by her long absences for the previous six months of mission training --- to the
point where her daughter loses it, and angrily says (just before launch) that
she never wants to see her again. And as
Stone grows through the disaster, she realizes that she is the adult in the
relationship, and her daughter’s outburst was only an expression of extreme fear
that her mother might not be there for her as she grows up.
And
after this realization, nothing can stop her from getting back and being there
for her daughter. So, the first thing
she does --- even before they find her alive and pick her up --- is to call her
daughter to tell her that, yes, no matter what they told her, she is still
alive, the mission ended early, and she will be home to bring cupcakes to class
for her birthday next week.
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