Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” is a sci-fi thriller that follows a woman’s will to live even though she has lost everything.

The film begins with Ryan (Sandra Bullock) and Matt (George Clooney) in outer space, working on their space shuttle. A Russian missile is fired at another space shuttle and the debris flies towards Ryan and Matt, killing their other crew member and decimating their shuttle.

Ryan and Matt become separated and are floating in space, later to be reunited. The rest of the movie is their struggles to get away from the debris safely, and getting back to Earth.

The direction of the movie was very slow. I lost myself countless times because the only thing to watch was a person floating in space, listening to their annoying breathing. Though the breathing was annoying, it was effective in getting the point across that they were running out of oxygen.

The cinematography of the film was excellent. The gigantic Earth was always in the background of each shot, which represented how small Ryan and Matt were compared to what they were facing.

There were too many face shots; however, I do not blame the director for using excessive face shots; there really was nothing else to film. The purpose of these shots was to show all of the raw emotion that the characters were feeling.

The film’s writing was too predictable. As the film started there was no main character specified, it went back and forth between Ryan and Matt (the only actors shown in the film). As soon as their crew member died and the shuttle was destroyed, the film abruptly selected Ryan as the main character.

As the movie started to focus in on her fear, frantic breathing and face shots were used, this basically told the viewer that Matt was going to be killed, just to make Ryan’s life in space more difficult. The film centered on her inner struggle to find the will to live.

The main lesson of the film is to never give up. Even when the odds were against her, Ryan pulled through, found her will to live, and survived her ordeal. If she could survive being stranded in space, then surely we can pull through our everyday struggles.

Overall, I do not recommend this film. The plot was slow, predictable, and I even fell asleep during the movie.