Review: 127 Hours

The fifth movie on my list of seven to see was 127 Hours.  This film was probably the most difficult to see and I made an effort to see it as soon as possible.  It had limited release on November 5th, so I knew it would be out of theaters soon.  I was so worried it would be gone that I drove down to Denver in a snow storm and saw it at 9:40 PM.  I was one of four people in the theater watching the film and suffice to say I'm glad I went to see it when I did (the theater that was playing it no longer is).  The film stars James Franco and that's about it.  There are a few other people that make brief appearances, but James Franco is the only person on screen for a majority of the movie.  Franco plays Aron Ralston, a young mountain climber who was trapped in Canyonlands National Park, Utah in 2003.  Ralston conveniently forgot to mention to anyone where he was going and was trapped for over five days, his arm pinned to the canyon wall by an incredibly large boulder.  The movie is based on Ralston's autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place and directed by Danny Boyle, the director of 2008's winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Slum Dog Millionaire.

I'm not going to spend an awful amount of time explaining the plot because it's pretty self explanatory.  Most of what there is to talk about in concerns to this movie is James Franco.  From the start nothing he does is terrible impressive, he jumps around and acts like a goofy, nerdy 20-something year-old.  However, once he gets trapped, Franco has one of the best performances I have ever seen.  Not only is it impressive in and of itself, but the entire movie rests on him and all you see is him stuck in the same spot for over an hour.  To take something so limited and produce something so profound is incredible.  Franco expresses hope, anguish, insanity, optimism, frustration, a sense of humor, and desperation all with no more than about three feet of overall mobility.  One of the most impressive, yet disturbing scenes has to be a dialogue Franco has with himself, clearly showing that Aron Ralston was on the verge of breaking.  I don't even have to explain how shocking and painstakingly depressing the final scene is (in fact, I don't remember the last time I actually cringed at a movie), but Franco passes the depiction with flying colors.

Another impressive aspect of the movie is the cinematography.  The number of angles and points-of-view that are utilized during the movie make the it more interesting and some are so creative and fascinating they make the viewer see the tiny space in a completely different light throughout.  The editing is also strong making the atmosphere feel warm and inviting while at other times making the tiny place feel like a dark, inescapable tomb. While the music of the movie doesn't always stand out, A. R. Rahman does an original score that varies from the typical Indian themed music he typically makes.

127 Hours is an incredible story and parts of it are hard to watch, but James Franco's performance alone makes it a movie not to be missed.  He has easily garnered himself an Oscar nomination.  While he may not win (Colin Firth poses some tough competition), I personally think he should and I think it would be a welcome victory by many for the young actor.  Franco invested himself in the role and made a mountain out of a mole hill.  With such limited resources, Franco does an amazing job and, no matter what happens at the Academy Awards, gave the best male performance of the year in my opinion.  You might cringe, you might cry, but 127 Hours is worth seeing solely because of James Franco's performance.