A meritable performance of a real life lonely experience

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2011)

Danny Boyle's cinematization of Aron Ralston's book about his real life experience of being stuck inside a canyon for five days was a laudable attempt. Overall, the movie was quite good with its pace, given that it has really one character for most of the movie.
The opening and credits are not very clear on their meaning. Though it is not clear how participating in large crowds is related to the matter of the film, apparently, Boyle is attempting to show the "human" experience within large crowds.
At any rate, James Franco's portrayal of the mountain climber being stuck in a lonely canyon with a boulder wedged across his arm and being unable to get out is very commendable indeed. He displays all the emotions that one would expect to experience when in such a situation. The way he remembers his past experiences with his friends and family is certainly something that many of us have felt to be the only thing that keeps us going when we are faced with loneliness. His performance deserved the Oscar nomination that it got. Whether he will go on to win the coveted award is anybody's guess.
In many ways, this movie portrays things that most of us have experienced: the feeling of loneliness that never seems to go away , the feeling of being cramped inside a small space and the feeling that there is a big boulder on top of us that holds us back. When he says "this boulder has been waiting for me all this time", it is certainly something that many of us can identify with when we face big obstacles in the course of our daily lives. Under the present social conditions, due to long work hours and lack of free time, not all of us have the opportunity of actually socializing and forming social relations with people outside of work. Hence, this movie can be taken as an allegory to real life conditions that many of us have to go through: we do sometimes have to give an arm or leg to escape from loneliness and form lasting social relations.