Franco is the star, not the film

Rating: 6/10 (5 December 2010)

Danny Boyle blazed on to the awards circuit two years ago with his Best Picture winner "Slumdog Millionaire." Boyle took no prisoners tearing through the awards season taking gold after gold. There was lots of anticipation for his follow up film "127 Hours," based on the true story of Aron Ralston, a young man who gets his arm caught under a boulder in Utah. The premise and promise made it sound like a sure-fire winner. Unfortunately, the films falters and falls a bit flat in execution. Boyle walks a fine line between artistic choices and cinematic overkill; he crosses the line a time or two. What saves the film is the undeniable remarkable work of James Franco. This is the best solo principal casted work since Tom Hanks in "Cast Away" back in 2000. What Franco achieves here is an uplifting of the human spirit and an utter submerge into a character of epic proportions.
Though Danny Boyle's direction and Simon Beaufoy's script are not the brightest things the two has placed on the screen, the story itself is worth the admiration and enough to place itself on this year's "must-see" list.
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