127 Hours

Beautifully photographed and anchored by an extraordinary lead performance, 127 HOURS is one of those inspirational movies based on real events that is actually BETTER than the mostly mediocre films of that ilk. That's mostly thanks to the fact that the film's inspirational nature doesn't stop it from being thoroughly raw and gritty in its portrayal of a person's intense struggle for physical survival. Danny Boyle's follow-up to the 2008 best picture winner SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE may not be as fascinating and engrossing as its predecessor, but it still deserves to be seen for its undeniable power and its terrific cinematography.

Aron (James Franco) is the epitome of the carefree adventurer. When we meet him, he's getting ready to go mountain climbing (or "canyoneering," as he likes to call it) in Moab, Utah. He's got all his gear ready, and that includes a video camera, because he loves to document bits of his adventures. It doesn't seem like there are other people involved in Aron's life, and we soon learn that he likes going solo on his trips. As his journey is getting started, he tells the camera: "It's just me, music and the night - I love it!". He happens to meet two girls, Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn) and acts like a bit of a dork as he gives them a tour of the area. Rather than being a stereotypical guy and leaving with these two girls, Aron is all about living his adventure by himself, so he eventually bids them farewell. The real film starts once Kristi and Megan are far enough that any cries of help from Aron can't be heard by them. Aron falls through a hole, which is no big deal, as this guy has done all sorts of risky jumps and whatnot; however, a boulder falls along with him, and Aron soon realizes that his arm is completely stuck between the boulder and a wall. He has no way of pushing the boulder off or getting his arm out without causing harm to it. Right there, the title of the film comes on the screen, and we start witnessing Aron's intense struggle to survive the dire situation that the cards have dealt him.

As we watch Aron try to find ways to get free, while trying to keep himself hydrated without using up all his available water, the film employs two "strategies" so that it doesn't feel like the entire film is about Aron's physical battle with the boulder. First, there are a lot of occasions in which Aron records himself with the videocamera, and these moments are easily the best the film has to offer, because they carry so much emotional heft and they give James Franco the chance to deliver a devastating, heart-breaking performance. And what's amazing is that, despite the seriousness of the situation, the film manages to turn one of these moments into delightful dark humor when Aron pretends to interview himself as the host of a TV show. In this particular scene, Franco's rendition of the TV show is laugh-out-loud hilarious. It's not just great that the movie gives us a moment of respite here with some light-heartedness, but it's the fact that, in spite of the terrible situation that his character is in, Franco makes us BELIEVE that Aron would have such a goofball moment to take a break from the problem he's facing. All of the scenes in which Aron records himself are truly terrific, and Franco's acting makes them even better.

The second technique that is used to "fill in" the time as our main character struggles to stay alive has slightly more mixed results. In order to give us a glimpse into Aron's life (his family, his former girlfriend, etc), we don't get flashbacks. I applaud that decision, because using flashbacks would've been the easy conventional choice to make here. What happens instead is that we're placed inside Aron's mind. We get to see the random thoughts and memories that sneak into his head, and we get to see the dreams he has. For the first half of the film, this approach is effective. An instance in which Aron is getting incredibly thirsty and he starts craving for the Gatorade he left in his car is edited perfectly well, and it makes his dehydration palpable. During the film's second half, the images become more random. That's understandable, since we're in Aron's mind, and thoughts ARE random, after all. However, the problem is that they don't contribute to much. The apparent difficulties he had with his former girlfriend aren't explained as effectively as they should've been, and an instance in which Aron imagines his friends and family sitting on a couch in front of him feels unnecessary. Because I feel that the scenes in which Aron talks into the camera are so great, I think this would've all been better if that technique had been exploited more: let us get to know Aron's relationship with his friends, family and ex-girlfriend by having him "talk" to them on the camera, leaving them a final message. During the film's second half, some of Aron's "memories" feel like they're there for the sake of ensuring the film reaches 90 minutes rather than because they have relevance to the film's emotional core.

I'm usually not a victim of allowing large amounts of hype to affect me, but I feel it may have happened to a certain extent here, NOT in terms of my appreciation of the film as a whole, but in terms of my reaction to the film's notoriously disturbing climactic scene, which has supposedly caused some people to faint and others to leave the theater. Maybe I didn't see the same cut (no pun intended), but all I saw was a somewhat large amount of blood, though nothing compared to what we see in some of these gore-infested horror movies that are constantly put out in multiplexes. I thought I was in to see a bone being cut through, or that we would literally see ligaments tearing away from one another. The "big moment" in 127 HOURS isn't as "bad" as most people are proclaiming, but that's actually a good thing, because it wasn't really necessary anyway. The film does a more than good enough job at portraying the dire situation that Aron is in, and it certainly didn't need to enter gratuitous territory just to make us flinch.

James Franco's performance in 127 HOURS is outstanding. The camera is on him the entire time, and we never stop believing him as a solo adventurer whose general avoidance of people has, to a certain extent, put him in this horrible situation. Franco has already proved in the past that, whether it's drama or comedy, his work is never anything short of fantastic, and I'm delighted that it looks like he'll finally get recognition for his performing abilities. His rendition of Aron impacted me deeply, and I won't soon forget it when making my list of favorite performances of the year.

127 HOURS doesn't allow the fact that it's based on real-life events to push it into schmaltzy territory. If last year's THE BLIND SIDE scored a best picture Oscar nomination (which was truly ridiculous), there's no reason why this film shouldn't get the same credit, even if it isn't necessarily one of the year's best. In 2010, we have seen two films that depict a male character literally STUCK in a physically dire situation: we first got BURIED, and now we have 127 HOURS. While BURIED is certainly the better film, that's mostly because it has a terrific ending, whereas the last few minutes of 127 HOURS feel a little haphazard. The more important note to be made, though, is that both films depend entirely on their respective actors' performances, and the result in that department in both films is nothing short of amazing.

Boyle has given us a nimble, visually-striking motion picture in 127 HOURS. One of the things I most admire about it is that, before entering inspirational territory at the end, it forces the viewer to endure an intense and wrenching experience. Contradictory as this may sound, I appreciate any film that refuses to make life easier for me, and instead, is willing to depict events with a higher sense of realism.

6/10