More bold adventure film, less soulful drama

Rating: 8/10 (26 November 2010)

Based on the true, survival-against-all-odds story "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", James Franco is Aron Ralston, and he is literally stuck between a rock and a hard place—a canyon wall in the Utah desert to be more exact. "127 Hours" records the time from when Aron finds himself stranded and trapped alone in a canyon, and has to use everything that he is mentally and physically capable of to try and get himself free.
I found it very similar to "Touching the Void" (2003) and "Into the Wild" (2007). Here, Danny Boyle captures the Utah desert in all its glory (and its few fauna and flora), James Franco in his many stages of anguish and loneliness, and his extreme adventurous nature, complete with lots of loud techno music.
Franco is expected to be in the running for the Best Actor Oscar, but I'm still trying to figure out how Emile Hirsch didn't receive the nomination for the aforementioned "Into the Wild". I think Boyle wanted to make this more of a bold adventure film rather than a soulful drama, so there were moments with quick, flashy editing and pumping music, and occasions for drug-like hallucinations. That's what depreciated the value of "127 Hours" for me, but it is still a spectacular story of the human will.