Only 127?

Rating: 7/10 (11 November 2010)

I went to see this film because I admire Boyle's work, and after "Slumdog" the expectations were high. When you team Franco and Boyle's talents, the results are bound to be interesting, and they are for the most part.
Based on the real life story of a hiker whose arm gets trapped during one of his weekend hikes, the film delivers some strong moments, and these work mostly because of Franco's intensity. His sense of despair, anger, frustration, and anger drive the film while the director concentrates on the drama. Unlike Ang Lee and Peter Jackson who can somehow conjure magic to supplement the drama, the triple screen doesn't do much but distract from the central conflict here.
On the other hand, Franco's desperate attempts at trying to find use of his resources is interesting and imaginative, and there is a scene involving a sudden flash flood that makes the audience care whether this man will ever make it out of this terrible situation. Very little time is given to the real background of Roston, and too much is spent in the "delirium" scenes. It's not that I am in disagreement with the sense that the hiker would have "gone mad" with desperation, but at times this device becomes repetitive. We see little about what the family was going through during his disappearance.
It's not a bad movie, not as exciting as I expected it to be.