When being caught between a rock and a hard place becomes all too real

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2011)

Few movies provide as purely visceral an experience as "127 Hours," a gripping true-life account of a man who literally gives his right arm to save his life.
It was April 2003 when daredevil outdoorsman and experienced rock climber Aron Walston ventured alone into Blue John Canyon in Utah without telling anybody where he was going. Tragedy struck when a giant boulder came crashing down on him, smashing and pinning his right arm so that Walston was actually left dangling a few feet above the ground. After more than five days in this position, he made the horrific decision to cut off the arm, thereby free himself from his predicament.
Given the shockingly gruesome nature of the material, it's possible that many people avoided watching this movie when it played in theaters. One of the advantages of seeing the movie on DVD is that the faint of heart can fast-forward through the more unsettling parts and not miss out on the overall experience – or James Franco's dazzling and empathic tour-de-force performance.
Moments of lucidity alternate with moments of intense unreality and confusion as the hours tick off and Walston increasingly struggles against hunger, thirst, cold, pain and mounting desperation. What strikes one most about Walston is the amazing resourcefulness and calm demeanor he demonstrates while confronting a situation most of us can imagine only in our worst nightmares. Walston certainly has time to think back over his life and to consider what exactly brought him to this moment in time and to contemplate the people who've made the deepest impact on him, and how he's treated - and, in some cases, mistreated - them throughout the course of his life.
Walston's ordeal resonates with viewers in that it shows us just how vulnerable we are to the cruel exigencies of an indifferent Nature, and how one little mistake or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time can forever seal our fate.
Director Danny Boyle and co-writer Simon Beaufry keep things from becoming unduly claustrophobic by throwing hallucinations, memories and imaginings into the narrative mix and by freely indulging in the hyperkinetic montage sequences that have long been the hallmark of Boyle's style (see "Trainspotting" and "Slumdog Millionaire").
In terms of acting, this is pretty much a one-man show, but there are important contributions from Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara and Treat Williams in small but significant roles.
Hard as it may be to sit through at times, "127 Hours" provides us with an unforgettable and ultimately inspiring portrait of a man staring into the face of Death – and making Death blink.