What if love was stronger than gravity?
Directed by Juan Diago Solanas and starring Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst, ‘Upside Down’ takes us on a journey to a different universe, to where twin planets have locked together, and where each lives in its own gravity. The beginning of the film states the three laws of dual gravity being:
- All matter is pulled by the gravity of the world that it comes from, and not the other.
- An object’s weight can be offset using matter from the opposite world (inverse matter).
- After a few hours of contact, matter in contact with inverse matter burns.
The two worlds are governed by a law which separates contact between those living in the wealthy and prosperous top planet and those in the poverty-stricken below the planet. However, in their youth Adam, from ‘down below’ and Eden from ‘up top’ meet on close mountain peaks. Their young friendship becomes romantic as they get older, meeting in secret and overcoming the problems of gravity in each world. When their illegal relationship gets discovered, Eden takes a tumble back to her world, losing her memory and contact with Adam. Adam works his way through a corrupt corporation and through groundbreaking science in order to rekindle with Eden and doing everything and anything he can to help her remember the love they had for each other.
It was nice to review a science influenced romantic movie for a change, as the thriller/science fiction genre can often get very repetitive. Firstly ‘Upside Down’ is visually beautiful, a must watch in HD. The romantic plot line is very predictable and repeats the same story of ‘boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl etc’, however, what I enjoyed the most out of the movie (besides the visuals) was the interesting science between the two worlds. I found it fascinating that gravity is personal and genetically tied to the inhabitants of each world. When Adam ventures ‘up top’ he is still bound by the laws of gravity on his planet. Although he finds a temporary way around it to search for his lost love, there are still interesting scenarios and concepts at play (check out the urinal scene for a giggle). This movie is a great one to watch when your significant other suggests a romantic film and really all you want to watch is reruns of Star Trek, or some Cosmos, plus, you may even earn yourself some brownie points for your romantic movie suggestion.
| Stars: | 4/5 |
|---|---|
| Best Bits: | It’s such a treat for your eyes, beautiful CGI, and the gravity theory is interesting. |
| Worst Bits: | It has the pretty standard romantic plot line. |
| Watch if you liked: | The bits in Star Wars with Leia and Han Solo. |
| Available on: | ITunes, and Netflix |
