"127 Hours" - An hour-and-a-half of a true-life experience

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2011)

Director Danny Boyle is quickly becoming the talk of Hollywood big-wigs. He made the excellent Scottish anti-drug import "Trainspotting" in 1996 (my personal favorite film of his so far) before re-inventing the zombie sub-genre of horror with "28 Days Later..." (2002) and hitting a Hollywood home-run with "Slumdog Millionaire" in 2008. He returns to the big screen triumphant with "127 Hours." The film was also produced by Christian Colson, who won the Oscar for "Slumdog" and was also behind the production of my favorite horror film of the new millennium so far, "The Descent" (2005).
"127 Hours" is based on the true story of Aron Ralston (James Franco) - based on Ralston's autobiography "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" - an avid and passionate rock climber/outdoors-man whose will and determination to survive is tested when he becomes trapped under a boulder for five days during the summer of 2003 and the film charts his initial horror at his circumstances, his repeated failures at trying to free himself, his attempts to survive in the harsh Utah desert with dwindling food and water, his desperation, his acceptance and denial of his presumed fate, and the ultimate sacrifice he makes in order to free himself from his confines at all costs and then finally make it back to civilization all right to tell his tale.
What makes this film so spectacular is the amazing performance of James Franco in the lead as Aron Ralston. For a good chunk of this film's 94-minute running time, it's the James Franco show live & uncut (even though Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara drop in early on as two female hikers named Megan and Kristi, respectively, whom he accompanies briefly); we saw something similar to this when Tom Hanks was trapped alone on a desert island in the Pacific by a plane crash 11 years ago in "Cast Away" (2000). Ralston's ordeal, his experiences, his memories, his hallucinations, his premonitions, his suffering - everything that he feels here, we feel as audience members. In that cramped little space with Ralston, his suffering becomes our suffering to bear witness to. With dry humor, daring athleticism and unmistakable acting skill, this is probably James Franco's career performance - after his superb work as Harry Osborn in the "Spider-Man" movies.
A lesser film would have dragged under the singular location and the fact that we're often staring directly into Franco's face most of the time. But his performance here is what keeps this film alive and moving, and dryly humorous. I'm glad Boyle's initial pick of Cillian Murphy (his alumni from "28 Days Later...") as Aron Ralston ultimately failed to pan out the way he wanted it to. If it did, I doubt we would have been able to see how truly amazing a performer Franco was in this film.
It's clear from the very start that Ralston has a love and a passion for living life to its fullest, love and passion for the outdoors and extreme sports, and not having any regrets about any of it. But it also shows that he is somewhat vain and arrogant; we also see that he is somewhat selfish and solitary and unappreciative of some of the things he has in his life, like his parents, his friends, and his ex-girlfriend. Because of his apparent denial of the importance of such simple but essential things to his daily existence, his arrogance at failing to even tell anyone about what he was doing or where he was going is probably what ultimately leads to his 127-Hour predicament here.
And he even speculates throughout the film that perhaps his life has led up to this moment, that from his childhood up until now, events have slowly built up to him being pinned under a massive boulder and questioning about whether or not he has the will to survive or die out here all alone in this canyon, with only those two women played by Tamblyn and Mara as probably the last people he will ever meet during his final moments on Earth. Danny Boyle makes great use of the outdoors location and the unusual but creative use of cinematography and camera-work: it's interesting to note the juxtaposition between the vast expanse of Utah desert in the early scenes and the confined canyon later on in the film that Ralston was initially prepared to call his tomb.
"127 Hours" is not a 94-minute preach-fest about valuing your life and living life to its fullest, and one man's ultimate struggle to survive under extreme conditions. It's also not overly melodramatic in its bold dramatization of Ralston's harrowing true-life experiences. Those who have read about what actually happened to him back in 2003 in that Utah canyon undoubtedly know the story by now and the much-talked-about sequences later on in the film about how he ultimately freed himself that have reportedly led to audience members passing out at the shock of the extreme measures he takes to triumphantly regain his freedom.
Danny Boyle doesn't deny any of this to the viewer and it wouldn't seem right to do so if he did. As stated earlier, the point of this movie is to plunge the audience into Aron Ralston's true-life experiences back in 2003, to make his story more widely known, and to remind viewers that it's always a good idea to leave a note about where you're going and what you're going to be doing.
10/10
P.S.: The rousing score by A.R. Rahman rocks!