127 Hours

Rating: 9/10 (15 May 2011)

127 HOURS – 9.3/10
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
The first film I saw of Danny Boyle's was Slumdog Millionaire and his third was 127 hours. From an ordinary, mainstream and clichéd director, he rose to the status of an extraordinary genius, ring master and a leader in his style of work. It was the brilliance of 127 hours and Trainspotting that led me to understand the master at work in Slumdog. It's a film worthy of discussion, and probably can teach you as much about direction as you would learn from a month long workshop.
The story deals with the real life incident of trekker Aron Ralston , played exceptionally well by James Franco, who fell into a crevice in a remote canyon in Utah as a lose boulder came off and trapped his hand in the process. In my opinion, the subject the film deals with is the hardest to recreate as you are dealing with almost one subject for the entire length of the film, and here is the hardest part – your subject is stuck in one place. Boyle manages to do what no other director has dared or achieved to do thus far. Many survival stories have been made, but I remember none being so enigmatic and captivating for the entire duration of the film.
Boyle uses several techniques from triptychs, zooming and split-screens to mash-ups and other beautiful original and inventive techniques. The challenge was to ensure that at no point, the film becomes static as the story had forced the subject to be. Audience attention span is limited and you can often lose them very quickly if nothing much transpires on screen for more than a few minutes. In this case, Boyle absolutely conscious of this fact, at all times, keeps the camera alive. There is almost a sense of desperation in the camera work, which in reality is actually conveying the trapped trekker's desperation.
The film reflects what one could call Boyle's vivid and childlike imagination. In the hands of a serious story teller, this film could become another survival tale meant to pluck at those emotional strings, more suited for a Discovery Channel documentary than an hour and a half commercial relay. Boyle paints the film colorful, capturing every little detail one could possibly capture in a cramped crevice. James Franco, who has managed to raise standards for acting in survival films to a new high, is as much part of the charisma that Boyle creates with his breath-taking camera work. It is to be observed how Franco switches from a tormented trapped trekker unsure of what will happen in the next few hours to a mature, controlled and calm individual in control of the situation. Franco jokes around as though he was on television, and you can see the pain and realization, and the hopefulness lingering on his face and in his voice. Boyle does an excellent job of using, memories, flash-backs and hallucinations to build character and move the film forward.
127 Hours is an achievement, a feat in itself. The very fact that such a difficult story was chosen shows extreme boldness and appetite for new challenges on part of the director. The film is arguably the best survival film I have seen. This proves so much that we don't need a lot of special effects and large budgets or exotic locations to make something worth your money. Three cheers for Danny Boyle!