Based on Aron Ralston's book about his crazy experience bouldering in Utah, 127 Hours is a totally grizzly story that is certainly not for all audiences.
Ralston is a twenty-something kid who loves to go bouldering, canyoning and exploring the wilderness of Utah. One day he goes into Blue John Canyon and ends up falling into a gorge with a boulder on top of his arm. As he struggles with the rock, he comes to the conclusion (after about 100 hours) that his only option is to break his arm off to get free.
Ralston is played here by James Franco, who does a really wonderful job with the role. Franco is fun and fresh with a bright smile always on his face and a can-do attitude with everything (including his own arm amputation). We see the flakiness of Ralston that leads him to not tell his friends and family where he is going and when he'll be back and not bring a good pocket knife (had he only known he would need it later...).
Director and co-writer Danny Boyle does a very nice job showing what is mostly a one-man show here, considering Franco is alone on screen for at least 75 minutes. The film doesn't really get boring and Boyle uses flashbacks effectively and Ralston's imagination very well.
One annoying thing is a pretty terrible epilogue that Boyle adds at the of the movie. We see that Raltson now leads a happy life with his wife and a kid. This is silly and beats us over the head with the fact that it's a true story (which it clearly is, no?). I dunno - I feel like part of watching a movie is to see an actor playing a role and interpreting a character. To then see the real guy at the end is frustrating (because it undermines Franco's performance) and not necessary at all.
This is a small movie, one I would call lesser Boyle. It has a good score by A.R. Rahman (who did the score for Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire) and a script co-written by Boyle and past collaborator Simon Beaufoy. It's a nice film, but not brilliant.
Stars: 2.5 of 4
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