IR Film Review: THE GRAVITY [Dark Star]

The idea of apocalypse or at least the end of days is bent within a context of what people are willing to fight for but also the ruts they tend to get into. In "The Gravity", two brothers connected by a tragedy and comeuppance in their youth grow into a strife that holds them together as a cosmic event that might or might not destroy the whole world in a matter of days hangs over their head. The lead of the story is Daniel (Max Gomis), a rising soccer star who deals drugs on the side to keep his dreams alive. He is buried against his own wishes in a gang culture which his brother Joseph, now confined to a wheelchair from a long fall in their youth, embraces their fate, This setback also allows him to expand his technological skills with an eventual well realized transformation.

Director Cedric Ido lets this techy/sci-fi thriller backdrop sort of drift into the background as the brothers try to avoid antagonizing a rival gang which seems to embrace the coming event as a sign of God or a rapture as they continue to engage in their own nefarious dealings. The film is mostly a slow build until the time crunch starts to happen where everything in a way must end. While some of the plot progressions strain a bit of credibility, once one fight sequence comes into play there is a sense of what is being fought for despite what is coming inevitably. Gomis really shows the essence of Max striving to escape but nothing quite goes his way and nobody believes in him, except one person (and that person can't really change his destiny).The path of the film is that gravity always has a way of bringing together disparate objects against their own best wishes. Max simply wants to live. But for him and everyone else, that might not be in the cards. B-'

By Tim Wassberg