Weightless Gravity

In retrospect, if was fitting that we had visited the multisyllabically-named Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Smithsonian Institutions Air and Space Museum in suburban Washington, DC this past Saturday afternoon. (You can substitute your name in place of Steven F's for a mere $64 million.) We saw vintage WW II planes, the way-cool SR-71, and the Space Shuttle Discovery and other manned space flight items.

Later that evening, Lisa and Attilio streamed the multiple 2014 Academy Award winning movie Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Awards for cinematography and original score were richly deserved. But perhaps it was because we watched on the small screen that I was not captivated even by the extraordinary special effects. More disappointing to me, however, was my lack of connection with the characters. Clooney's veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski was a bit too "right stuff" to inspire and Bullock's Dr. Ryan Stone was simply too good at dealing with one catastrophe after another to be believed. 

I would put Gravity well down the list of films seen since the middle of this past December. An enjoyable diversion of a movie but not one that gets to the heart of what it means to be human in this tragic world.