Gravity 2013 ***

It’s not a Alfonso Cuaron film until something gets splashed on the camera, although it’s not still the final scene that something finally hits the lens. The director’s gift for scope, technical excellence and character are all in effect in his 2013 blockbuster, which sports barely 80 minutes of action but keeps up an unremitting intensity as Ryan (Sandra Bullock) attempts to find her way back to earth with the smallest possible bump. Ryan’s back story, her daughter died in a playground accident, is minimally sketched in, but such minimalism is part of the strength of Cauron’s film, with amusing work from George Clooney as her Buzz Lightyear-like companion Kowalski. The real star of Gravity is the way in which a natural force is both hero and villain, threatening and saving Ryan at the same time, and beautifully wrought by impossibly complex special effects that make Ryan’s situation easy to understand. The short film Aningaaq should be viewed as a comedown immediately afterwards; seeing Gravity at home is like viewing snaps taken of a spectacular holiday, not the same experience, but a way of remembering a journey shared.