127 hours

December 24, 2010127 Hours (2010) *****Directed by Danny BoyleMy tweet:127 Hours (2010)- Pretty damn amazing. Maybe the most intense film I've seen in the last few years. ***** out of 5Other thoughts:Without a doubt, had anyone else other than Danny Boyle directed 127 Hours, it would be a vastly different film. One of the most visceral filmgoing experiences I've ever had, we see the true story of Aron Ralston, a fearless and arguably stupid outdoor adventure junkie who is so confident in his own skills that he doesn't tell anyone where he's going despite the fact that he will be all alone, with no one around him for miles. After a flirtatious tryst with some y! oung women, Ralston falls into a crevasse where a boulder lodges itself on top of his arm. Thus begins an excruciating couple of days that has Aron try and fail to move the rock, then figure out how to continue to survive with a rapidly depleting water supply, and finally come to terms with what he must do in order to have a chance to live the life he sees in front of him. All the while, Aron retreats into his mind, taking stock of his life so far while also imagining going to a party he was invited to by the young women mentioned above. He has one hour worth of battery life in his camcorder, and he uses it not only to watch previously recorded material, but also to record a message of love to his parents. As things get really dire, Aron also interviews himself on camera in a dual personality exchange containing more pathos than you'd ever see on Letterman or Leno.For well over an hour, we're trapped along with James Franco who plays Ralston, and knowing that the character ! is ultimately going to cut off his own arm, Boyle teases us wi! th serio us suspense. The film brings to mind the old Hitchcock axiom--if you see a bomb explode, it's not scary, but if you know there's a bomb hidden under the table which could go off at any moment, then that's scary. At the same time, Boyle strikes the right balance between ratcheting up tension and not getting too manipulative. So much of the film could have pandered to the sort of filmgoer who loves to see disturbing images on screen like a man forced to cut off his own arm. Instead, 127 Hours is refreshingly often meditative and quiet instead of being uncompromisingly nasty and gratuitous.Beyond Boyle's direction, another key to the film's success is James Franco who gives perhaps the performance of the year. Franco is one of those actors that seems a bit odd in real life. I remember him best for his hilarious guest starring role on 30 Rock where he plays himself having a love affair with a body sized pillow with a Japanese anime woman in a bikini drawn on the outside. Match t! hat with his peculiar desire to play an over-the-top serial killer on soap operas, and it's perhaps expected that Franco would ham up a performance that requires him to be on screen alone for almost an entire film. Also add Ralston's real life confidence and ability into the equation, and Franco seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Instead, he's so perfectly balanced as a relatively socially awkward jock. Franco's Ralston isn't the sort of person that's going to be the life of the party, but he would be the sort who would be all too eager to jump off the roof of a house onto mattresses below if someone dares him to do so. If anything, Franco teeters just a bit towards underplaying the role, but, considering that you can't take your eyes off of him on screen and considering that every single thought and plan registers to us so clearly often without any words spoken at all, it's safe to say that he rises up to the challenges of an unconventional role and elevates the succ! ess of 127 Hours as a result.The last five minutes or so don't! quite m atch the consistent novelty of the previous ninety, with imagery involving a couch sitting next to a pool that's just a bit trite, but, by that point, the viewer has experienced everything necessary concerning the exposition, climax and catharsis of Aron Ralston's unimaginably difficult and impressive experience. 127 Hours is at times difficult to watch, but thanks to Boyle and Franco particularly, it's one that left me completely satisfied. I'm sure that Ralston's ordeal was much more onerous than mine was simply watching a movie, but I'd like to think that, witnessing nerves being sliced, I might have gotten at least a glimpse into the suffering and ultimate triumph of an especially resourceful and determined young man.
All the movie reviews. The best films