127 Hours

I’m a fan of Danny Boyle, but the one criticism that comes with most of his films is that they lose it in the last 20 minutes or so and the endings are never satisfactory. Ironically for 127 Hours, it’s the beginning of the film that is the worst part as we follow Aron Ralston (James Franco) begin his ill fated journey to meet his destiny with a rouge boulder. Swaying cameras, odd effects, splits screens and some truly dire music on the soundtrack make you think you’re watching a first time director out to make a name for himself as opposed to a recent best director Oscar winner. Ralston’s true life story of the day he fell whilst mountain climbing, getting his arm trapped and eventually escaping by cutting off said appendage is well documented, so when watching the film you’re basically waiting for the accident to happen and then, well, basically waiting for the sawing to begin. Actually, that’s not quite true of course, as you want to see what Ralston had to endure before he had to make such a desperate decision. However, apart from a bit of chipping away at the boulder there isn’t all that much going on. This is all down to the biggest problem with the film. Unlike Ralston’s novel, you mainly have no idea what his thoughts are whilst watching Franco on screen. Boyle tries a number of tricks around this, including dreams and a fake chat show. However, it all feels a bit too forced. Of course, you can’t just have a film of Franco mainly struggling in silence with a look of increasing worry on his face, but it does beg the question as to whether Ralston’s story was filmable in the first place? On that note at least the film is, according to Ralston himself, as accurately portrayed as possible (I’ve seen pictures that Ralston took of himself whilst trapped and the film is so exact I thought I was looking at stills from the film at first). Interestingly, the infamous moment of the arm severing feels fairly tame and I can only assume the various reports of people fainting has been more due to the psychological build up to the scene in question rather than its actual portrayal. I’ve read the moment in Ralston’s book of the arm cutting and believe me you do need a strong stomach for that. The sharpest moment in the film though comes seconds after Franco originally gets his arm trapped. Captured perfectly by Boyle and Franco, the split second look of utter terror that crosses Franco’s face as he realises even then that there’s no escape is a fleeting moment of pure human cinema. It’s just a shame the rest of the film doesn’t convey the same emotion.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Franco is great, but even the talent that is Boyle has a struggle to make a visual entertainment out of what was mainly an internal monologue. Rating: 5/10.