Flick Flak: 127 Hours

Posted by neilramsden from Cardiff - Published on 20/01/2011 at 09:27
8 comments » - Tagged as Movies

127 Hours
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco
15, 94mins

A film which consists of over an hour of one man stuck in a narrow canyon, unable to move, until he eventually hacks off his own hand, would normally be a tough sell. But not for Danny Boyle.

After coming up with the surprise Best Movie winner at the Oscars in Slumdog Millionaire, I imagine he was asked to make the film that he most wanted to make next. Incidentally, this seems to be how directors and studios work - you have a massive money-making hit, you get to make your own project next (that’s how Inception came about). The result of this is 127 Hours, the true story of Aron Ralston, an adrenaline-junkie who gets trapped in a narrow canyon in Utah for over four days.

This is something of a two-man show: Danny Boyle and James Franco make this a very good film. To be fair the supporting actors are all good, but they have tiny parts, mainly as mirrors to reflect different sides of Ralston’s personality for the audience. Watch out for Kate Mara playing Kristi, one of two girls who Ralston meets while exploring the canyons before once more disappearing on his own. Both Kate and her sister Rooney Mara are set to be big soon - Kate has a role in the Sundance award-winning indie Happythankyoumoreplease, while Rooney was in The Social Network and will be playing Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (I remain sceptical).

The main aim of 127 Hours seems to be to tell Ralston’s insane story as truthfully as possible. Ralston himself has been involved in the making of the film at every stage, and has allowed Boyle and Franco to watch the video diary he shot of himself while he was trapped. Hence, we can assume that these scenes are as realistic as can be imagined. Which, when you see the film, are pretty distressing.

Understandably Ralston seems to be mentally crumbling, repeatedly, before pulling himself back together to survive. It’s incredible and it's compelling viewing watching his pragmatism time and again overcome his own deterioration. James Franco is stunning as Ralston, and deserves the Oscar nomination that he looks set to get, even though Best Actor will surely go to Colin Firth (and rightly so). It is not so much the scenes of him distraught and crying that are so impressive, but those in which he analyses his life and his behaviour in front of his camera. The scene in which he imagines he is on a talk show is particularly effective, revealing so many sides to his personality.

I think that this is the film that really launches Franco’s career. I personally think that he’s been excellent before, in the Spiderman films as a good ‘baddie’ and in Pineapple Express, but I can see him becoming a Pacino or Gary Oldman later on. On top of this, Franco sounds like a bit of a genius - he has an English degree, and simultaneously studied creative writing, design, and filmmaking, and is currently studying at Yale for a PhD in English. And he’s written a book of short stories called Palo Alto. And he’s had a public art exhibition of his paintings.

Much of the film’s success is down to Danny Boyle’s direction, which starts where he left off in Slumdog Millionaire - the opening to 127 Hours is all split-screen, busy, energetic shots, with pounding, driving music. However, once Ralston becomes trapped the film settles down into this entirely different style, slow, gripping, full of fear for the character, and into this is spliced flashbacks, hallucinations, and even supposed premonitions. Although the action has literally ground to a halt, the film itself still maintains a momentum and energy, not least because we all know where the film is inevitably going.

If you don’t want to read some fairly gruesome stuff, then stop reading now.

To escape from the canyon and survive, Ralston made the decision to cut off his arm below the elbow with a small and fairly blunt penknife. To make this all the more incredible, he had to snap both bones in his arm so that he could cut through. This scene is the very point of the film - what mental strength does it take to make that decision and then go through with it. Could I do that? Now, compared to something like Saw, this scene in the film is not that shocking. But in the context of this entirely realistic movie it is brutal, and is shown in sickening detail. The part where Ralston realises that he will have to sever a nerve bundle (I don’t know the biological term) is horrendous, and the audience is made to feel his pain with the use of awful, nerve-shredding (literally) screeches of music. Amazing filmmaking, but tough viewing.

In fact, that comment is a good place to end. 127 Hours is a stunning film technically - the direction, acting, camerawork, and music are all some of the most compelling and innovative I have seen for ages. The film is a really tough watch, but is moving and definitely worth watching once.

[Shameless self-promotion] If you love films, take a look at my blog for more reviews, news and general film stuff: facehugger.tumblr.com

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8 Comments – Post a comment

CeefaxOfLife

Commented 16 months ago - 20th January 2011 - 10:35am

And that's why I always carry a penknife.

emb789

Commented 16 months ago - 20th January 2011 - 18:45pm

Ceefax, I've said it before and I'll say it again.
You are so wonderfully witty!!!

RuhBuhJuh

Commented 16 months ago - 26th January 2011 - 01:19am

Going to have to disagree with you about how shocking the scene is, especially the Saw comment. The Saw films are meant to shock, but they generaly aren't, they've taken things a step too far, and the situations the characters get themselves into are unbelieveably unrealistic. 127 Hours' legendary scene is far more shocking for two reasons. 1) This is a TRUE story! And 2) This could happen to anyone. People do things like this all the time, not only is it hard to watch simply because it's gruesome, but it's hard to watch because it could be one of us in that situation, choosing between starving down there, or losing an arm to survive. It's genuinely (an unlikely) possible that it could happen.

neilramsden

Commented 16 months ago - 26th January 2011 - 10:50am

No, yeah I think we're in agreement! Perhaps I should have said, compared to the Saw films the scene in 127 Hours is realistic. But maybe you saying that the scenes in Saw aren't shocking suggests that you, like many people, are a bit desensitised to violence. I reckon people who don't watch that many violent films would find Saw pretty shocking. This is what I was comparing 127 Hours to- if people have been desensitised to violence through stuff like Saw then 127 Hours is not that tough a watch. However I agree that this scene is brilliantly done and in the context of the real-life setting it is horrifying and mind-boggling!