Don't Avoid This Movie!

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2011)

I had put off watching this film for a while after getting it, thinking it would be an ordeal and possibly boring - I mean how exciting can watching a guy stuck for almost 5 days be? I was very pleasantly wrong.
The movie's pacing is spot on. It pumps you up with a beautiful vitality and exhilaration to where you're having a great time being with actor James Franco and loving his (Aron Ralston's) life as a vigorous adventurer in the wild. And then the accident happens, and you're so right there with him, unbelieving and struck with shock.
And it's impossible not to hang in there though all the trial and horror of what follows.
Danny Boyle and his team really do well with this movie, artistically, diving into the experience of a man trying to survive, to get free, and into the depths of the soul that stare back when we have no refuge, literally CAUGHT between life and death. Even with the depths of delerium, where reality blurs, this film is never too arty or pretentious.
See this movie now, rather than later. It's a hell of a ride.