Between Life and Death!

Rating: 9/10 (8 December 2010)

'127 HOURS': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Yet another remarkably bold achievement in seemingly impossible cinematic storytelling this year! Like 'BURIED' from earlier this year this film tells the story of one man trapped in a single confined location for the duration of almost the entire film. Unlike 'BURIED' this film sets up the scenario and also leaves the primary location in flashbacks and day dreams. It also utilizes a lot of flashy special effects and stylized visuals to drive it's message home. It's still an astonishingly creative and one of a kind film going experience. It's impressively directed by Danny Boyle (in his long awaited follow-up to the Academy Award winning 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE') and features one of the best performances of the year (right alongside Ryan Reynolds in 'BURIED' in my opinion) from early Oscar front-runner James Franco.
The film is written by Boyle and his 'SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE' scriptwriter Simon Beaufoy. It's based on an autobiographical book by Aron Ralston (entitled "Between a Rock and a Hard Place"). The book tells of Ralston's world famous mountain climbing adventure where he became trapped by a collapsed boulder, which pinned his arm, while climbing alone in an isolated canyon in Utah in 2003. Ralston was trapped for over 5 days and finally grew up enough courage to resort to desperate measures in order to free himself and survive. Franco gives probably his finest performance to date playing the man as he struggles with survival, losing his sanity and facing his biggest regrets in life. The real Aron Ralston kept a video diary while he was stuck, as depicted in the film (using the same exact camera). He had only allowed his family and friends to view the video until he let Boyle and Franco see the footage in order to more accurately depict true events. It's been quoted that Ralston is quite happy with and moved by the film.
The film is of course very moving and inspirational (at times even tear jerking) but this is something that any competent filmmaker should have been able to deliver given the material and resources. How Boyle tells the story is what's truly remarkable and memorable about the film as well as his ability to stretch the material into a highly involving and entertaining adventure for a full 93 minutes (credit also has to be given to his co-scriptwriter for that though). The movie is very claustrophobic, surreal and horrifying. The climax is excruciatingly hard to watch and more grotesque than almost any horror film (there have been reports of viewers suffering from shock and needing medical assistance at multiple screenings). James Franco is one of those actors that I never thought had much talent early on given a lot of the choices in film roles he'd take but it appears as though he just made a lot of unwise career decisions (I always thought he was the weakest link in the 'SPIDER-MAN' films). In recent years he's proved himself to be one of the most talented and diverse young actors working today. 'PINEAPPLE EXPRESS' was his initial role that really caught my attention (but I also hadn't seen his earlier memorable work on 'FREAKS AND GEEKS' until after that). This is his finest performance to date and one of the best single performances of the year and the movie is one of the most impressive creative achievements of the year as well.
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