Gravity

When I watched this in theaters a year ago, my experience was quite ordinary.  I recognized several moments of visual excellence, but didn't find any sort of enlightenment.  I didn't feel obligation to rewatch, despite my incomplete understanding of the plot.

But yesterday I endured again, in the presence of another, and found myself blissful.  The story is so simple, yet of paramount importance.  Will she survive?  It's Ryan's battle with the expansive eternal, both physical and emotional.  I was satisfied with Bullock's performance, which showed her instinctual drive to survive as well as her inner quest for for recovery, for renewal.  Maybe Salma Hayek would've been better, but that's a discussion for another time.  

Cuarón's direction and Lubezki's cinematography seem to identify the ethereal against all odds in a sea of blackness.  The physical gravity looked and felt real, and was always used in tandem with the emotional gravity of Ryan's journey.  

Gravity felt different, almost like it occurred in a galaxy light-years away.  Each moment held leadened profundity; there was meaning in this world.  The planet was beautiful outside the atmosphere, within it, and upon the surface itself.  Ryan's emergence from the water into the yet incorrupt land was a triumph over the indifferent expanse.  

My experience during this film is certainly comparable to 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Allow me to clarify.  Gravity has a much more minimalist feel, despite the grandiose visual ambition.  The story is told with simplicity, because the story is simple.   The visual poetry offers an expanded interpretation with possible philosophical undertones, but such exploration is purely voluntary.  2001,  however,  is an unescapable exploration of humanity and its significance.  Each moment is fully developed for this expressed purpose.  Both films will likely hold significance with me for extended time.