Did you here about the man who had to cut off his own arm?

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2011)

Winning an Oscar is normally a golden ticket for a director to make any film their want. Danny Boyle certainly used his Oscar winning status to its full advantage and made sure a project he wanted to make for a while was commissioned.
127 Hours is the true story about Aron Ralston (James Franco), a 27-year-old climber and adventurer. In 2003 Aron goes off to Blue John Canyon to explore and have fun, meeting two young ladies on the way, Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn). After they leave Aron ends up getting his arm trapped in a crack in the Earth and for the next 127 hours he has do everything he can to survive and tries to free his arm. As he does this he think about his love ones, his mum (Kate Burton), Dad (Treat Williams), sister and ex-girlfriend Rana (Clemence Posey) as he thinks about how selfish he has been and how no one will find him.
Danny Boyle is a great director having made Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire. He has such a great visual style and he brings it to a film which most directors would struggle to make visual. Boyle uses some really great tricks, from the zooming in and out of canyons into underground pools or show the crack in the world. To expand the setting Boyle and the screenwriter Simon Beaufoy showed flashbacks and memories to make 127 Hours more then just a man talking to a camera and trying to get his arm free. We get to see Aron grow, being regretful and remorseful and that he is a resourceful but reckless man. James Franco does offer an excellent performance and we possibility get a Oscar nod.
Boyle did give the film an almost documentary style because he uses places the camera in one position as people talk, keeps editing down to a minimum and uses hand held cameras that follow people and a small camcorder for when Aron leaves messages. But there is no rubbish shaky cam or zooming like there was with Paul Greengrass' Green Zone which looked like an amateur film. The cinematography by Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle of the Utah was wonderful and shows a very strange and unique landscape. A.R. Rahman gives a great score and soundtrack to 127 Hours and Boyle uses the music to add to the build up in the film, like the bit of music that sounds like a heartbeat.
Everyone who went to see the film knows that Aron Ralston had to amputate his own arm and Boyle was aware of what the audience do know. He plays on this, using the music and the playing and examining of the knife in anticipation of the coming event. This is a spoiler but I have to say it, the amputation scene was strong, brutal and powerful. Aron had to hack away with a small knife and you really felt the pain when he had to cut through a nerve ending. But I personally whined more when I saw Aron take out a contact lens (but that's because I have a slight phobia of eyeballs).
Whilst 127 Hours was a good film, it was not great like some critics made out. I was a little under whelmed and for me the film felt a little hollow. Boyle still made a good film, but its not his best (that right goes to Trainspotting). I expect it will be nominated for some Oscars but it does not deserves to win Best Picture or Best Director (sorry Mr. Boyle).
7.5 out of 10.