Against All Odds

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2011)

Danny Boyle's film based on real events is all at once a horrifying, explicit, and oftentimes heartwarming movie. A story of remarkable human resilience, Boyle and star James Franco make an involving and personal film about a man versus the elements.
The film tells the true story of Aron Ralston, a professional rock climber. On this particular weekend, he decides to go to the desert without telling anyone where he is going. After biking for 17 miles, he runs into two girls—the last people to see him while he still had his forearm. After going their separate ways, Ralston continues hiking through canyons. While going into one, a boulder slips from under his feet and his right arm becomes pinned between the boulder and the wall of the canyon. This is where the movie really begins.
Essentially a one man show, James Franco gives the best performance of his career as the man caught between a rock and a hard place. His slow descent into hopelessness, madness, and finally, assertiveness, is sadistically fun to watch. Even if it is hard to sympathize with a cocky rock climber, as the movie progresses. Franco's character becomes more and more identifiable, eventually coming to embody any one of us who has gone through painful decisions and excruciating circumstances. Franco gives his character a mixture of warmth, strangeness, and—when he cuts his own arm off—complete baddass-ness.
Danny Boyle gives it his all with this brutal account of survival. It's a hard thing to get right, making a movie that almost entirely takes place in one small spot; but Boyle triumphs. The bloody and gut- wrenching amputation scene will have even the most jaded movie goer squirming in their seats. Yet, what makes this movie great is the warmth and sentiment Boyle places at the heart of this film. Our character looks back on his life, family, and ex-girlfriend. And he even has a vision of his future son. Boyle is able to take a bleak and bitter tale of survival, and turn it into a glorious film of hope and beauty. The movie is beautifully photographed by Anthony Mantle, with saturated colors that almost engulf us into the desert.
Still, the film belongs to Franco. His Oscar-worthy performance is the centerpiece of 127 Hours. Although Boyle sometimes strays into predictability, and the arbitrary split-screen editing is unnecessary at best, the movie is so involving that you'll forget you're even in the theater. The music, cinematography, and directing all come together to make this movie one of the best of the year.
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