A Powerful One Man Performance From James Franco

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2011)

Clearly, James Franco's performance as Aron Ralston is the highlight of this movie. Franco is basically putting on a one-man show for probably 90% of the running time and he (and director Danny Boyle) manage to keep the story flowing effortlessly, and draw the viewer into the nightmare that Ralston has literally fallen into. Ralston is a rock climber who makes the tragic mistake of going climbing alone without telling anyone where he would be going. A fall into a deep crevice traps his arm against a canyon wall and the movie is the account of Ralston's fight to survive, based on the book that he wrote about this experience. In that sense, there's no real mystery about what the outcome will be - the movie is based on Ralston's own book, and acknowledges that off the top. Obviously he survives. The question is how. Franco brilliantly portrays Ralston's growing desperation (which begins more as frustration as he assumes that he'll find a way out but gradually realizes that getting out is going to be a lot more difficult than he at first thought.) As his food and water run out and as he battles insects and cold nights and comes to terms with his life and some of the mistakes he's made you get drawn into his situation. Even if you've never read the book, you basically know how this situation is going to be resolved but that doesn't take away from the movie's power. In some respects I might compare this to the movies "Alive" or "World Trade Centre" - each of which deal with somewhat similar circumstances of people trapped in nightmarish situations wondering how they're going to get out. The difference here is the one-man nature of the story.
In addition to Franco's performance, the on location filming offers starkly beautiful pictures of the canyon environment. From a strictly personal perspective (and this is merely a matter of taste I suppose) I didn't care for much of the musical score (especially the opening music) and I'm not really a big fan of split screens, which occur periodically throughout this. Overall, though, from the simple perspective of the story (which is, of course, what really counts) I'd say this is a must see.