127 Hours

For those of you who don't know, 127 Hours is Danny Boyle's latest foray in his broad spectrum of films. If you don't know who Danny Boyle is, shame on you. Stop reading this, and go pick up Trainspotting, 28 Days later, Sunshine, or Slumdog Millionaire (in fact, you should probably pick them all up and have a marathon, because Danny Boyle is amazing). Based on the real life ordeal of Aron Ralston, 127 Hours is the story of a man who goes on a backpacking trip in the remote Blue John canyons and gets his arm trapped beneath a rock. This film is not particularly plot heavy (in fact, the previous sentence was the entire plot) so if you're really into a good story, you might want to skip this one. It's much in the same vein as Cast Away (less so I am Legend, which, let's face it, has zombie/vampires in it) in that it is a film that's focused on one character, in this case, Aron Ralston (played by James Franco).

Late one night, Aron Ralston decides to go on a backpacking trip without telling anyone where he's going. His mother calls as he leaves, but he decides to ignore the call in favour of getting an early start to his adventure. Soon he's blasting across the canyon side, listening to music and loving life. The next day he happens to run into two girls who are also hiking, a coincidence as they are in perhaps the most remote place in Utah. These girls are significant only insofar as they are the only two people who know that Aron is around in the canyon area. He guides them to an underground pool, hangs out with them for a bit, and then heads off to pursue his own adventure. From then, it's only a matter of time until an ill-fated decision to cross a canyon on an unsteady boulder causes him to fall and dislodge the boulder, getting his right hand crushed between the boulder and canyon wall. The next shot is a face-on of Ralston, with the title credit, 127 Hours, beside his head. It lingers for a few moments and then leaves us alone with Ralston. The rest of the film chronicles Ralston's attempts to remove his hand by trying to chip away at the boulder with nothing but a small multi-tool, and more importantly his attempts to stay hydrated and the slow degradation of his sanity as he remains immobile for 5 full days (127 hours), culminating in the cutting off of his own arm with a dull multi-tool blade.

The first thing i'd like to say is that, as it's based on a real life event, this is perhaps one of the most frightening scenarios I can think of. Indeed, i'd like to publicly declare to all hikers everywhere, but particularly to my friend Brendan Spafford, who reminds me very much of Ralston, to please please always let someone know where you're going. I know it should be old hat for anyone who's actually an experienced hiker, but sometimes we forget things.

I'd like to discuss Mr. Franco's performance, as he is the sole focal point of an hour and a half of your time. I think James Franco did an excellent job of holding the audience's attention, first by making some adjustments to his predicament (he manages to snare a rock with his rope and attach it to his climbing harness, so that he's not holding all his weight with his crushed arm) and later, as he slowly starts to lose sanity, by having a colorful conversation with himself as a talk show host and guest (shot beautifully, more on this later). On a side note - I hope they never do this, because Heath Ledger was legend, but if Christopher Nolan decides to have a replacement for The Joker, I would strongly advise him to put James Franco in the role. The scene in which he begins to lose his grip on sanity, and repeatedly tells himself "don't lose it" is eerily reminiscent of The Joker's mannerisms and tone of voice. While Franco, as Ralston, doesn't quite go completely batshit insane like I would've liked him to, he successfully portrays a man who's clinging onto the last vestiges of sanity and more importantly, hope. The climactic scene in which he finally amputates his own arm is so brutally realistic that you have no choice but to feel what Ralston is feeling. By the movie's end, when Ralston finally gets rescued, you feel as though you've experienced the entire ordeal in the place of Ralston, and your spirits will literally lift off with the medi-vac helicopter. Kudos to James Franco for bringing this horrifying tale to life.

I mentioned before about the scene in which Franco talks to himself as though he is both talk show host and guest. It's shot in such a way that it actually seems as though there are two characters, host Ralston and guest Ralston. Danny Boyle makes use of the in-film camera (which Ralston uses to record daily video journals) to represent the 'guest' and the regular mise en scene camera to represent the host. It is edited in such a way that Ralston is very much having an ongoing conversation with himself.

A.R. Rahman returns to collaborate with Boyle (they previously worked together on Slumdog Millionaire) and he creates a rollicking, heart pounding soundtrack that plays on the feeling of anticipation throughout the entire movie. This is a union that I heartily approve of, as Rahman's music and Boyle's direction go together like Eddie Brock and an alien symbiote suit.

Ultimately, 127 Hours is a tale of idiocy (not telling anyone where you're going), endurance (surviving 5 days with little food and water) and finally, a tale of perseverance and the lengths to which we will go to survive. It's an emotional roller coaster that runs the gamut from joy, to anxiety, to downright fear, and finally, to elation as we see Ralston finally get rescued by people who aren't mirages. Danny Boyle hits another one out of the park, and i'm going to revise my original statement, and say that even if you ARE a plot-heavy movie viewer, check this one out - if nothing else, you'll get to see a pretty gruesome scene of James Franco cutting his own arm off.