Courage in the canyon

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2011)

Yes, you do spend the whole movie steeling yourself for the scene you know is coming and, yes, it is a visceral scene many people will shield their faces from. But the strength of 127 HOURS is more than just the sum of its severed parts: director Danny Boyle makes you share the appalling isolation in Aron's predicament, and James Franco's performance, slowly cracking up as the hours and days crawl by, makes you yearn for the crisis to have a different resolution.
Boyle fills the painful hours with flashbacks to Aron's family life (and girlfriend moments) and fantasy forward flashes to the life he doesn't expect to see again. There are a few scenes which have almost certainly been added to spice up the waiting time(e.g. the water-baby games with two girl hikers and the near-Biblical flood) and Aron's videocam episodes verge on the mawkish (justifiably perhaps), but even without them this thrilling and beautifully photographed movie would pack a powerful punch.
Faced with a lose-lose situation like Aron's, how many of us would have the courage to do what he did?