So So But Unrewarding Film

Rating: 6/10 (23 January 2012)

So the film is the famous story of Aron Ralston, an American climber who goes on a canyon hike in Utah and comes acropper when his arm gets trapped by an 800lb boulder. After 6 days he realises he is going to have to take drastic action to ensure his escape.
I felt this film was a bit of a mixed bag. Certainly the story felt very unnerving and haunted me long after the film had finished, this was due to the film capturing very well the isolation of the place Aron was trapped in. I also think the film did a very good job of highlighting what an idiot Aron was for getting into that predicament and how selfish he must have been around the time. It did this without making us dislike him too much, so I think it made a good balance out of his character. But I wasn't actively rooting for him as such, 1 - because I knew what happens anyway, and 2 - because whilst I'd not wish that on anyone, it's hard to root for him as it all transpires through his own foolishness, and there's a near infinite list of people who have met an untimely demise through no fault of their own. So we might perhaps consider them more 'deserving' of our sympathies.
James Franco did a rather workmanlike job as Aron, showing he kept his head well in spite of what happened, and rallied himself for an escape on day 6 despite his weak and delusional state. But I felt disconnected from his character, in fairness this could be the direction, as Boyle is somewhat patchy IMO.
The camera-work was excellent regarding the scenery and it really did ram home how desolate that place is and how insignificant a speck of nothingness is a human being, I thought that aspect of the film was superb. The editing however, good god...It was like MTV gone mad! I realise it's incredibly hard to make an engaging 90 min film with only one character, but the constant hallucinations and flashbacks with split-screen effect, well that was such a cheap way out of it and smacked of very immature film-making. A better director could have made that film work without any of the cheap gimmicks, because the story is highly unsettling and the stuff from which edge of your seat tension could be made, in the right hands.
There is no message to the film, despite what anyone will tell you. It merely shows us that people are capable of tremendous deeds when their life is on the line - this is already well documented, and that human hubris can get you into trouble, again this is very well documented and I am sure many of us know this from our own experience.
So, whilst I enjoyed certain aspects of the film, it was somewhat unfulfilling - certainly it's no 'Alive' or 'Touching the Void' - but I think this was down to the directing and nasty editing for the MTV generation.