[…] * At least some of the positive BWOM (By Word Of Mouth) about this movie derived from the audience’s emotional connection with a mother who has lost her …read more […]

This is an awesome series so far Scott. You should try and do more of this type of stuff in the future. I agree with the reader who complained about the subject matter of the small story in yesterday's post. The death of a family member is -- to me -- such a cop out. It's something you'd expect from a B-level children's movie, not an Academy Award-winning visual epic. I'm of the belief that anytime you stretch for internal conflict you're doing yourself a disservice. Often, the best storlyines can be created from seemingly incidental personal issues. When you reach for conflict you'll usually fabricate outside events that feel artificial and irrelevant to the story, when in fact most humans come innately equipped with their own set of fears, anxieties, shortcomings and struggles. To me, that's what happened in Gravity. The small story in no way related to the big story. It was just there. It only existed. It did not really fizzle or intertwine with the development of the larger story. It was simply an obstacle inserted into the plot to make Stone's life more difficult. The writers overreached instead of looking at what was directly beneath their noses with a female lead. For example, rather than the death of a child, why not make Stone's small story about her own insecurity as a female astronaut. I mean, isn't that conflict practically written into the story as is? Wouldn't that make the audience much more inclined to root for her to overcome the impossible, survive and land safely back on Earth? Furthermore, isn't equal rights for women a hot topic in contemporary American society? Isn't that what movies should do? Shouldn't they act as a zeitgeist and make a statement about modern-day living? Perhaps I'm too political. Maybe pushing feminist narratives isn't something Hollywood is interested in, especially when it comes to blockbusters like this. But in terms of story, I thought it could be improved upon.

I like your analysis, Scott, but I also agree with Kalen's critique. The small story of her unresolved grief struck me as contrived. I never bought into it as I was watching the movie. Which is to stay, I didn't respond emotionally to the small story as I did to the Big Story in which the astronaut was fighting for her dear life against the worst possible odds. >>make Stone’s small story about her own insecurity as a female astronaut I dunno. Too obvious, and something of a cliche in our era of post-feminist sensibilities. In contrast, as a movie where the female protagonist's small story superbly complements her Big Story, I offer "Aliens". Ripley is fighting for her life AND the life of the stakes character, the young girl Newt (proxy for her own daughter who died while she was drifting for 56 years in space). AND it's a fight between women -- Ripley versus the Alien Queen. The Big Story and the small story are two facets of the same matriarchal fight for the survival of rival species and their offspring.