Artfully simple adventure story that treats the reality of outer space no differently than how other great adventure films treat exotic islands, foreign deserts, the ocean and the jungle. They’re beautiful places to look at and terrifying places to get lost. That’s what happens here when a small crew up in orbit doing maintenance work on satellites is mostly killed and has their essential equipment all but destroyed by a freak accident. From there, all that matters to the survivors is getting back home with no more than some battered machines, dwindling oxygen, and frayed nerves. Director/co-writer Alfonso Cuarón keeps the storytelling stark to the bone. The story starts moving right away and the characters are drawn out through the course of the adventure via some sentimental button-pushing that Cuarón wisely doesn’t dwell on much. He keeps the tension going with efficiency while he counts on the inherent likability of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney to give the characters life. What else are movie stars for? In the end, it works and the suspense is true edge-of-your-seat stuff. For maximum appreciation of the effects’ eerie verisimilitude, try to catch this in 3-D. It’s the perfect way to see a film set in a zero gravity world and where anything, good or bad, that emerges out of the void of space is vitally important.