Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 34 mins
Director. Danny Boyle
Cast. James Franco, Kate Mara, Clémence Poésy, Amber Tamblyn.
Rating. 74%
Based on his own best-selling novel, Between A Rock And A Hard Place, 127 Hours recounts the harrowing story of Aron Ralston (James Franco), a young adventure sport enthusiast, who in 2003, was forced to resort to desperate measures after five days (and seven hours) spent with his right arm pinned against a canyon wall.
Your enjoyment of 127 Hours may ultimately depend upon your view of the director, Danny Boyle, and in particular, his hyperkinetic style of directing. Boyle's fast-paced, energetic style worked perfectly for Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and Trance.
The same hyperkinetic direction works well at the outset of 127 Hours as we watch Aron Ralston at play in the desert canyons and trails of the Canyonlands National Park, Utah. Danny Boyle is innovative and imaginative, employing split-screen triptychs, blurred motion and time-lapse sequences, various unconventional point-of-view perspectives and hyper-real, out-of-body flashbacks. These techniques, accompanied by brutal editing by Film Editor, Jon Harris, enhance the inert storyline and combined with a pulsating and relentless soundtrack, the final offering is a mostly pleasurable assault on the senses.
But the intensity never lets up, even when Ralston gets trapped in the canyon. This results in a disconnect from the main character, and Boyle fails to convey the panic, the unavoidable claustrophobia or the plodding monotony of Ralston's five-day ordeal. A more minimalist approach, in the vein of Robert Bresson, John Cassavetes, Wim Wenders or Gus Van Sant, may have been more effective in establishing a connection. The restricted space and incarcerated main protagonist should have forced the director to discover more mundane opportunities for tension. Because when it works, it works well. Boyle creates a nerve-shredding set piece when Ralston tries to retrieve a dropped pen knife.
James Franco produces one of the best performances of his career to capture Ralston's horrific experience. A poignant portrayal that garnered Franco an Academy Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Franco sympathetically portrays the precocious Ralston as a young man transformed over the course of the harrowing experience from a self-absorbed, arrogant individual to someone more humble and reflective. Someone infinity more likeable. However, I cannot help but wonder if there was potential to further elaborate on how Ralston was transformed by this experience. The end credits simply display a series of uplifting photographs and video clips of the real Aron Ralston.
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