127 Hours
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco, Clemence Poesy
Runtime: 94 mins
Rating: ****
It’s becoming clear that Danny Boyle is a man who relishes a challenge. This was none more apparent than in 2008 with Slumdog Millionaire, a movie shot largely on location in India with a host of local actors and a chaotic filming schedule, and if the plans for his next film – a sequel to Trainspotting – come through, he’ll face the monumental task of bettering what is arguably his best film to date.
127 Hours is a sort-of intermediary challenge – relatively easy to shoot, considering that the majority of the film takes place in one location, but difficult in terms of overcoming the plot’s inevitable conclusion. Based on the book by Aron Ralston, a canyoneer who amputated his right arm after getting it stuck between a rock wall and a dislodged boulder, the audience knows what’s coming, and any lesser filmmaker would let the story naturally flow to the two big events: his initial accident, and his grisly amputation. Boyle, on the other hand, eschews this in favour of something much more interesting.
Much of the film is told, to camera, by James Franco’s affable and occasionally arrogant assumption of Ralston’s persona, and when we’re not being played through his handheld camera, Boyle zooms to an uncomfortably close level. Directly playing against this are a series of hallucinogenic sequences and flashbacks which serve to round off Ralston as a character and help us empathise with a man whom Boyle has made no attempts to portray as heroic. The result is a surprisingly polished and cathartic survival film, never losing its pace, favouring emotional honesty over histrionics, and – apart from the one scene that’s prompted cinemas across the country to display advisory notices – making sure that character takes precedent over gore.
Loading ...