News Story - 07/01/2011

Cinema Review: 127 Hours – Danny Boyle’s action film about a guy who can’t move

Danny Boyle’s adrenalised account of a horrific accident boasts an engaging turn from James Franco. Milo Wakelin tries to squirm free of this meditative and visually inventive film.

Despite its title, 127 Hours is not a prequel to Danny Boyle's brilliant, bloodthirsty 28 Days Later, but viewers of a nervous disposition are advised to take note. This meditative, visually inventive account of one man's personal epiphany is sensitively told, and boasts an extraordinarily engaging, preternaturally likeable performance from James Franco. But the transformation it depicts is physical as well as personal, and Boyle, characteristically, pulls no punches.

Based on Aron Ralston’s acclaimed autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place, the film follows the energetic outdoor fanatic as he sets out into Utah’s beautifully rugged wilderness. Exploring a canyon, a boulder slips and falls onto Aron’s arm, pinning him against a wall, and in a split second his life has changed forever.

Although the bulk of the story is set in a single location - with a single actor - 127 Hours is a film of remarkable energy and emotional breadth. In Boyle’s words, it’s “an action movie with a guy who can't move”, and the director uses a variety of visual effects and filming techniques to explore Aron’s internal and external struggle to cope with his predicament.

The film cleverly alternates between the minutiae of Aron’s immediate surroundings, to his dream-like visions of escape, to the barren majesty of the rocky landscape in which his canyon is but a detail, underlining the impossibility of accidental rescue. 127 Hours offers a zen-like reflection on the rhythms of the natural world and our place within it. It’s a testament to Boyle’s skill that the film’s scope feels so totally unconfined.

What emerges is a moving portrait of a young man who, although outwardly affable and outgoing, has cut himself off from the people he is closest to. 127 Hours is a story of great personal resourcefulness, but footage of Aron leaving final messages to his parents on his pocket camcorder underlines the film’s theme that we derive our greatest strength from others.

Sooner or later though, Aron’s tale has to come to the crunch. Audiences fainting dead in their seats? Maybe not, but I’ll admit to feeling a little light-headed, and I certainly heard some very strange noises from the lady sitting next to me. However, nothing in the film’s goriest moments is in any way gratuitous, and Franco’s performance feels so natural, and our identification with his plight has become so strong, that the overriding emotion you will carry away from this remarkable film is euphoria.

127 Hours was released at UK cinemas on Wednesday 5th January

Related Films

Requiem For A Dream

Cinema Review: 127 Hours – Danny Boyle’s action film about a guy who can’t move

Recent News Stories