Gravity

A medical engineer (Sandra Bullock) is on a repair expedition led by a cocky, seasoned astronaut (George Clooney) when remains from a destroyed satellite collide with their space station leaving them alone in the dark reaches of space. Now their only hope for salvation lies in reaching the abandoned, neighboring Russian spaceport before running out of oxygen. Gravity is another technically masterful film from Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien) replete once more with a series of unbroken, seemingly impossible shots that, especially in the first passage of the film, seem to go on indefinitely. All this is abetted by a remarkable, beautifully emotive, career best performance from Sandra Bullock who (POTENTIAL SPOILER) has an insanely difficult task of carrying most of this film by herself and George Clooney is perfectly believable in a role where he is basically playing himself.

Great Expectations

In an update and modernization of the often filmed Dickens classic, we follow Finn (Pip) as he aids an escaped convict on the Florida marshes, becomes the playmate of cold Estella at the behest of of the jilted Ms. Dinsmoor (Havisham), and travels to New York City where he puts on an art show courtesy of a mysterious benefactor and foolishly pursues his childhood sweetheart. "Great Expectations" is well directed by the fine auteur Alfonso Cuarón. Ethan Hawke who I have always found to be an erratic actor does nothing here to change my mind, sometimes hitting the right notes as the naive and innocent Finn and other times hitting notes that are so out of left field you wonder just how he came up with them. His character's narration of the film is unnecessary and does not add to the story. Gwyneth Paltrow does a nice job as Estella and is extraordinarily sexy and the great Anne Bancroft does a good job as Ms. Dinsmoor in a role that is written in all the wrong ways. Robert De Niro and Chris Cooper offer fine supporting roles as well. I wanted to emphasize Cuarón's excellent and beautiful direction, but when you adapt a familiar and beloved work such as this and mesh it with modern music, language, and locations, the result is jarring. Besides all that, there just seems like there is something missing from the picture and in the context in which it is presented, Dicken's timeless story simply does not work here.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Often in a planned series of films released relatively near each other, they will change directors to bring a different perspective on the material. Although Chris Columbus said he would not return to Harry Potter after directing the first two films in order to spend more time with his family, the series was in need of a new director to bring their vision to the project. By bringing Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men) in to direct, Harry Potter is portrayed in a new light and the film is given a new element not present in the first two installments. Now in The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, already showing signs of maturing, return to Hogwarts for a 3^rd year amidst the first escape ever from Azkaban by the sinister Sirius Black (the always great Gary Oldman)-a man who played a part in Potter’s parents death and may now be after Harry. Dumbledore is now played by Michael Gambon after the passing of Richard Harris, and fills the shoes aptly. Emma Thompson and David Thewlis are also welcome additions to the cast, but again the most important addition to the film is Cuaron and it is a shame that this is the only Potter film he will be involved with.

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