127 Hours Review

"There is no force on earth more powerful than the will to live." (From the trailer)

A director can only do so much with a film like “127 Hours” in which the main character is trapped for most of its runtime. Danny Boyle has pulled all of the tricks out his bag to make one of the most interesting, intense and emotional films of the year.

The film tells the story of real life climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) trying to survive after he gets his arm pinned under a boulder while hiking in Moab, Utah. The premise for this film may seem similar to another film, “Buried”, from earlier this year, but they are radically different. Where “Buried” opted to never leave the coffin in which the main character was trapped, “127 Hours” frequently employs flashbacks and hallucinations to give a better backstory of Ralston before the accident. As a result of not being confined to one location “127 Hours” feels like a much more fuller film.

A film like this is hinged completely on the main actor’s/actress’ ability and James Franco doesn’t disappoint. He plays Ralston as a geek, and like all geeks he has an obsession. His obsession is the outdoors where he hopes to one day make a living as a guide, but all of his knowledge and hopes can’t prepare him for everything.

By now most people will have heard of Aron Ralston’s story, but knowing the ending to this story will not effect how powerful the journey to that ending is. By the end when he is forced to make a choice, it has almost not even become a choice, but desperate act to survive despite the costs.

In the hands of Danny Boyle, the film finds meaning in Ralston’s predicament. In a lesser director’s hands the film may have fetishized the grieving family or the team preparing a daring rescue. In “Cast Away” Tom Hanks at least has an island to explore while Franco stay in one spot. Like the volleyball in “Cast Away”, “127 Hours” uses a video camera to keep him company.

The most powerful scenes of the film are spent in silence, but the scene that everyone will remember from the film is the escape. In this scene Ralston finally makes the choice to live and leave a part of himself behind. Everything that Ralston does is shown without a cut to more pleasant sights. With each stab you feel his pain, but he must keep going to survive. When he gets to the nerve you feel every time the knife touches it with a blaring sound filling the theater. The scene that follows has Ralston, finally free, for a moment crack a smile. A smile of someone who never thought he would leave that spot, a smile that means that he has already won.

If there was one problem with the film it is the computer generated weather effects, but that is a small detail in a nearly flawless film.