ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

Just moments after this movie ended my daughter leaned over to me and declared, "This is the most perfect film I have ever seen in just about every way."

I had to agree.

GRAVITY gives you everything: thrilling action, awesome visuals, incomparable cinematic spectacle, a terrifying scenario, an exciting adventure, and a masterpiece of minimalist characterization. They all combine in one pedal-to-the-metal slam-bam technically perfect movie that gives you equal shots of hope and hopelessness from the first frame to the very last.

It is as electrifying a film as I have ever seen, with scarcely a down moment in it, hardly a misused frame. I won't spend time telling you anything about the plot; if the trailers haven't told you enough about why this film is a must see, then I can give you two words that should do it...

Sandra Bullock.

She is not only in practically every frame of the movie, but she exposes herself emotionally here in more ways than I could count: she is equal parts victim and heroine, emotional and calculating, frightened and bold, wounded and powerful. She is a tortured soul who reveals herself in dribs and drabs, revealing her emotional torment when it will have the most effect. The movie is as much about what HAS happened to her as what IS happening to her. She is able to make herself as interesting and captivating as the events that occur during the film, and this is important: rather than simply being a movie about a series of cascading terrors, it is equally about the human spirit, the "stuff" that lies inside us that drives us to go on when going on seems impossible.

GRAVITY is amazing. See it in IMAX 3D if you can; it is worth the money.Read more ›

Many people don't take science fiction seriously, but here's a movie that might work for those who don't usually like the genre. There are no aliens, unknown worlds, monsters, or laser shootouts. This is a movie that's set in the real world, or more accurately, above it.

The story opens with a George Clooney voice-over. We meet astronauts working to repair a satellite. This shows how calm such a silent world can be. I reluctantly saw the movie in 3D, but this was one occasion that I came away feeling that it added to the experience. It almost made me dizzy seeing Ryan Stone (Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (Clooney) go about their routine business with Earth looming large in the background. Indeed, the cinematography was breathtaking throughout the 90 minutes.

I don't want to give away too many details, but if you have seen the trailer or even looked at the poster, you'll know that this movie is far from being a calm ride. An accident sends debris racing toward the astronauts like some kind of deadly shrapnel. What follows is a story about the strength of the human spirit, and the will to survive against all odds. Remember that the word gravity has more than one meaning.

While I enjoyed Sandra Bullock's performances in The Blind Side and Speed, I would hardly describe myself as a fan. However, I left the theater thinking that she carried the whole movie, and it's easily the most accomplished performance of her career.

Alfonso Cuarón directed Y Tu Mamá También, Children of Men, and the best Harry Potter movie (Azkaban), but this is comfortably my favorite from his impressive portfolio. The story is lean, gripping, thoughtful, thrilling, scary, breathtaking, beautiful, and emotional, and feels perfectly paced at every point.Read more ›

"Gravity" is the latest in a long tradition of films in which survival in a hostile environment is a series of hops from one slightly habitable sanctuary to another. It can be in a desert, underwater, or in space, but the premise is the same: one person against all odds tests her own mettle to (hopefully) survive and in doing so, come out a better person in the end. In the case of Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), it's a form of rebirth.

Stone is on her first mission aboard the Space Shuttle Explorer with veteran astronauts Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and Shariff Dasari (Phaldut Sharma). It's not long before things go horribly awry in the form of a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite, which triggers a recurring boogeyman: floating debris pierces everything in its path every 90 minutes. The cloud of debris is catastrophic, and it's not long before Stone is on her own doing her best to survive. But does she want to? Lurking in Stone's past is the death of her daughter due to an accident, and she has been sleepwalking through life up to this point. Kowalski (one of the few characters in Stone's literal universe) challenges her on this point.

And so begins a desperate struggle for Stone, alone and only partially trained, in the most hostile environment imaginable. She battles the triple threat of asphyxiation, hypothermia, and insanity. On the third point "Gravity" distinguishes itself from other films, led by Bullock's excellent acting as a woman under extreme pressure.

Bullock (nearly 50, if you can believe it) is stripped to her core, both emotionally and physically, until there is nothing left. And then, like a babe, must struggle her way out of tight spaces and cramped airlocks in a battle to return home. Expertly shot and breathtakingly choreographed, "Gravity" is a thrilling spectacle in 3D. It's a heavy subject, but well worth the ride.