Movie review - 127 Hours

Based on the true story of Aron Ralston who cut off his own arm with a blunt pocketknife after having it trapped by a falling rock while hiking/canyoneering, 127 Hours is an interesting movie from Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire. This is a relatively short 94 minute movie, but gosh, they sure do fit a lot in that time!


Early in the morning, Aron (James Franco) packs his bag with various items and drives alone to a National Park in Utah for some canyoneering. While there, he runs into a pair of lost female hikers and together he brings them to a site where they have to take a blind drop into a underground lake. The girls extend an invitation to Aron to come to a party they're attending but as they  part ways, the girls express to each other the expectation that he will not come. Later as Aron makes his fateful fall, he realises that he will likely die trapped in the canyon as other than the girls, no one knows where he is. And from here, we go into Aron's mind through the events that led him to his current predicament, his hallucinations while trapped, and how he manages to work up the will to cut off his own arm (which we see in somewhat graphic detail).


While this movie can definitely be called the James Franco show, as he is alone for about 80-90% of the film and acting against himself, I'm beginning to think that it's more a great display from Danny Boyle. I'm not sure how closely this matches the source material (Ralston's autobiography) but we are with Aron every step of the way as he painstakingly contemplates his solitary personality and the arrogance that brought him to his current state  (quote, "You had to be a fucking hero!"). As more time passes and we see his increasing mental disintegration as food and water deprivation gets to him, his hallucinations take on a bizarre edge that deliver us to how a person can work up the nerve to do what many would consider unthinkable. The presentation of how these changes in mindset occur and the tricks his head was playing on him are amazing. Actually, in hindsight it actually reminds me of another great hallucination scene by Boyle - The Toilet Dive in Trainspotting!


Now, of The Scene itself, it is conducted in an entirely realistic and downright painful way (the sound!!!) but definitely how we get to the scene itself was definitely more interesting to me than actually watching it. That's not to say I cringed away! I watched every moment and was impressed that it wasn't just skimmed over to make it more palatable for the general populace! But don't let what you see overshadow everything that came before it.


As commented after watching this movie, this is a situation only a guy could find himself in because a woman would never ignore a phone call from their mother and we're also less likely to go somewhere isolated without telling anyone first! 
8-9/10