Caught between a rock and… another rock.
The H-Bomb: Let me start off this review by offering a bit of advice. If you’re prone to taking outdoor excursions in unpopulated places, be it mountain climbing, camping, whatever, make sure you tell someone where you’re going and when they can expect you back. That way, if you fall and break your leg or something, you can be fairly sure that someone will come looking for you. Now, I know I sound like Captain Obvious spouting mere common sense, but there are people who somehow fail to take these most simple of precautions, like Aron Ralston (James Franco), the real life subject of Danny Boyle’s Oscar Nominated “127 Hours”, now freshly arrived on DVD.
Ralston is an energetic outdoorsman who goes for a biking/hiking/rock climbing expedition in the Utah desert, bringing along with him a day’s worth supply of food and water, as well as a video camera. After hanging out with a couple of hotties that he meets along the way (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn), he scales the inside of a narrow canyon, where with a wrong move and some bad luck, he falls and his right arm gets stuck between a boulder and the canyon wall.
Completely isolated, and, as said, without anyone knowing where he is, Aron spends more than five days trying to figure a way out of his predicament, all the while dealing with hunger, dehydration, and the immense amount of physical pain that he is in. He tries chipping away at the boulder with his cheap knife and making a pulley to dislodge the boulder. All to no avail. Finally he comes to the realization that in order to get out of this, he is going to have to choose between life and limb.
For me, this film served as a sobering reminder as to why I’m strictly an indoors kind of guy. As much as I would enjoy taking free spirited adventures like the ones our protagonist indulges in, I know that it is absolutely not worth the risk of irreversible disaster that could come of it. And if I was ever stuck in a situation like Aron’s, if I had to choose between my life or one of my limbs, I don’t know if I’d have the will or the pain threshold to do what needs to be done.
Much like another film I checked out recently, “Buried”, “127 Hours” involves a character who is trapped in a confined space for most of the movie. And also like “Buried”, this film is engrossing and never at any point becomes boring, thanks to some slick direction, brisk pacing, and a solid, engaging performance by the lead actor. Unlike the previous film, which never left its very claustrophobic setting, this one does leave the trapped space, showing flashbacks of Aron reflecting on past events of his life, such as; quality time with his father (Treat Williams, seen in a few fleeting moments), wild college parties, and an intimate encounter with his former girlfriend.
These scenes, along with the natural sense of humor of the main character, make this somewhat easier to take than “Buried”, which is relentlessly bleak from beginning to end. However, while that might make “127 Hours” lighter going, it doesn’t at all make it light going. Thanks mainly to Franco’s performance, we are made to feel Aron’s inner panic and despair. There are many points where we, had the resolution of the story not been common knowledge, would feel the hopelessness of this decent, life loving man being defeated by nature and being dealt a fate he didn’t deserve.
Because most of us know the outcome of the story, one would think it would dilute the impact of its drama. But it doesn’t, because Franco and the storytelling are so strong. Scenes like the one where he’s amusing himself with his camcorder in order to keep his spirits up and sanity intact, and where he addresses his mother and father when he feels all hope is lost are undeniably powerful. And the sequence where he finally goes through with what he knew all along he had to do to free himself is absolutely grueling.
Franco has proven himself to be a skilled and versatile thespian in past performances, but here he truly gives it his all like he never has before, and I think he really deserved his Oscar nomination. That’s not to say he deserved to win, but he definitely did deserve the nod, and I think he’ll be collecting his own little golden bald man before much longer, anyway.
British filmmaker Boyle is an interesting case in that his style is unique and distinctive, yet he’s very versatile when it comes to the projects that he chooses. He’s done druggie dramas, he’s done horror, he’s done sci-fi, he’s done underdog (or slumdog) stories, and now he tackles a survival movie. It’s a new genre for him, yet he brings that same vibrant, hyperkinetic style he uses in all his films, and again, it works completely to the movie’s advantage. Using split screen, montages, and his typical visual flair, he keeps us invested in Aron’s dilemma and on the edge of our seats. I believe Boyle simply is incapable of making a dull film, his aesthetic simply won’t allow it, no matter what kind of restraints the material may put on him. To me, this movie is proof of that. And, as with every Danny Boyle film, the soundtrack kicks ass.
Thinking about it, I really regret not catching this one in theaters, as I think that I would have found it, with Boyle’s amazing visuals and Franco’s wrenching performance, even more powerful on the big screen (though it does look bitchin‘ on Blu-Ray). Trust me, folks, “127 Hours” got a Best Picture nomination for a reason. It’s a terrific, riveting film about a man’s will to survive, and I can‘t recommend it enough.
