On general release from Thu 07 Nov

Alfonso Cuarón / USA / 2013 / 91 mins

Although space tourism has been brought a step closer by World View Enterprises’ recently unveiled specialised hot-air balloon, Alfonso Cuarón’s sleek new thriller may dispel your appetite for it. When a belt of debris orbiting the Earth damages their space shuttle, Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Captain Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are left to fend for themselves trying to find some transport back to Houston.

While the plot is very basic and the dialogue isn’t particularly challenging, the radioed patter between the academically prim Stone and the lackadaisical Kowalski gives these glowing faces in shining armour a sense of personality. The real hook of the production however is the unyielding and unremitting tension. By virtue of being in space, Stone can never relax. There’s always a looming danger, be it debris, oxygen levels or finding a vehicle to return in. With each difficulty Stone faces, Cuarón raises the stakes of the possibility of her survival, making for nail-biting angst as you will her safely back to the terra firma she craves. Although aspects may embellish some scientific laws, for the most part this is a story that feels rooted in realism (there’s no Hollywood machismo) making Stone a figure that it’s conducive to empathise with.

This is the kind of film that 3D technology was made for, everything about its visuals are mesmerising. Cuarón’s versatility of multiple camera angles gives impact to the fact that his characters are loose bodies, bobbing around in an eternity of speckled blackness. When Bullock spins uncontrollably, the rotating point-of-view shots have all the sickening dizziness of a rollercoaster without any of the fun. The very images themselves are staggeringly beautiful, with panoramic birds-eye views of Earth clad in an azure and viridian shell displaying the undeniable magnificence of our shared home. Kowalski himself repeatedly mentions how much he loves the views. And the intricacy of the distant cosmological formations executed on such a large scale, proves to have a hypnotic quality that entrances you in its twinkling simplicity.

Follow Callum on Twitter @CWMadge