The G Spot

I haven’t written a movie review urging you all to see a new flick since Daniel Day-Lewis’s tour de force in Lincoln but I had to hit the computer to tell you about the space walk I just took with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity.

To get me in the proper NASA frame of mind, I just fished out my program from the AFI 1983 film debut of the The Right Stuff.

I was at the Chicago premiere because, not only do I dig outer space movies, I helped dig at the groundbreaking for the Henry Crown Space Center here at the Museum of Science and Industry. (They gave us mini shovels and scarves as souvenirs of that day.  It was COLD.)

The movie was terrific, the party afterward was extra-terrestrial, and the coolest thing? Buzz Aldrin signed my program.  Yep, Edwin Eugene Aldrin- in 1969, the second guy to walk on the moon.

(In 2002 Buzz also had the distinction of punching out a jerk who had lured him to the Beverly Hills Hotel on an interview pretext.  This moron- a conspiracy theory nut- wanted him to swear on the Bible that the moon landings were not faked.

Buzz clocked him.  Nice.)

And I just looked over at a battle jacket I own. It’s covered in patches that men who have served in the armed forces have bestowed upon me over the years.  Two of those patches now marched forward front and center.

Both were given to me by astronaut John Grunsfeld.

The first one says “Astro 2,” and it commemorates the 1995 sixteen day mission when the NASA crew conducted round-the-clock observations and collected data on ultra violet light given off by hot stars and distant galaxies.  (How Star Trek is that!?!)

My second patch bears the words “STS-81.”  This patch marked the 1997 space shuttle Atlantis’s ten day mission to dock with the Russian Mir shuttle.  John was the flight engineer of that crew.

(As a prank, John called NPR’s “Car Talk” and described a problem he was having with his “vehicle.” The experts were baffled- and then relieved- to find out that the “vehicle” in question was the space shuttle.)

Ok, I was now in the proper AOK mindset to write about this movie.

It was out-of-this-universe awesome.

And it restored my faith in going to the movie theater and actually forking over hard-earned cash.  Nowadays, I watch practically everything on my iPad on my own timetable and it takes a serious leap of faith to get me to an actual movie theater.  (Or Anchorman 2.  I will see that when it comes out.)

Alfonso Cuarón, the director and co-screenwriter, has used every tool in his talented box to come up with a breathtaking, thought-provoking, uplifting, stunningly beautiful and empowering movie.

No spoiler alerts here.  I don’t want to say too much about the film itself.  But it’s not about outer space.

It’s about the inner space between our ears.

My takeaway was that even though Life can be arbitrary, unfair, uncaring, cruel, stupendous, glorious, random and inexplicable, it’s up to us as individuals to fight for it.

Sure, we need all the help we can get from friends, family and Mission Control.  (Fill in your personal blank here.  This could be God or Karma or Fate -whatever you believe.)

But in the end, we all wage the twin battles for survival and existential meaning alone.

Scary, isn’t it?

And the hero of this movie?

A woman- played with the charm and vulnerability by the adorable Sandra Bullock. Sandy’s Our Girl In Space, and we worry and wince and cheer her on as each new threatening piece of jagged metal cosmic junk comes hurtling at her.

3D Glasses Sidebar:  I did NOT see Gravity in three D.  That experience gives me vertigo, so no thank you.  One D suited me to a one T.

I urge you all to see this film.  And be sure and take the youngest daughter, granddaughter, niece or goddaughter you can (it’s rated PG-13) with you.

Every girl should see this movie when she is at an impressionable age,

Including this girl.

Copy that.

I hope you’re out there, guys.  And listening.

Is anybody listening?

Okay, Houston.

Roger that.

We have contact.

Mission accomplished.