"127 Hours" is a beautiful and stylish true story that will make you thirsty and uncomfortable by just watching one man's extraordinary experience.

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2014)

Being stranded with a boulder on top of your arm in the middle of nowhere in Utah while trapped in a canyon for 127 hours is probably one of the most physically and mentally difficult experiences mankind has ever experienced. Believe it or not, this is a true story based on hiker Aaron Ralston's exhausting experience. James Franco plays Aaron, the adventurous nature lover who's life is a little unorganized. When Aaron is hiking in Moab,Utah he meets two girls, enjoys the scenery and then becomes trapped in a canyon with a boulder on top of his arm, not allowing him to escape. Aaron films himself on his camera and uses his food and water supply conservatively. As Aaron reflects on his past life, we see how much he misses his freedom and the measures he's willing to take in order to escape. Danny Boyle films this genius true story with so much beauty that it feels like something out of discovery channel. We see flashbacks of Aaron's life with his childhood, relationships and family that are done very stylishly and are not just simple scenes with traditional dialogue. Boyle uses real-life looking shots of James Franco trapped to make it feel real and transports us to feeling as if we were trapped with him both physically and emotionally. The cinematography of the national park in Utah and beautiful scenes in which we get to feel Aaron's thoughts are the work of genius visual storytellers and put us first hand into the setting of the film. The whole message of this film is to take advantage of life while your able to, or else you'll spend the rest of your time regretting it. While Aaron is trapped, he reflects on how he hasn't worked hard enough on his relationships and how he really hasn't enjoyed life as much as he could have. The respectful tribute at the end to the real-life Aaron Rolston is well done and the ending is a very feel-good crowd pleaser. The main component that helps you feel the experience only the brave Aaron Rolston experienced is James Franco's realistic and beautiful performance. At first we see Aaron as a lazy, chill guy who enjoys clowning around. We get are fun James Franco there until he is trapped and expresses extreme forms of grief and stress as well as sorrow and regret. Franco gives an extremely realistic performance that is one of the best reenactment performances of all time. "127 Hours" is a film that makes us appreciate cinema and life more and hopefully be a warning to stay safe in Utah!