Movie Review: 127 Hours (2010)

127 Hours (2010): Amazing story, isn't it? Man goes messin' about on some rocks, gets his arm stuck behind this big old boulder, has to cut his arm off, survives the whole ordeal. However, if you'd have asked me whether this would have made for a good film, I don't think I'd have said yes. It's not overly action-packed, for a start. Apart from the amputation and the genesis of the experience - i.e the boulder falling down - there's not much to it. In order to get this to work you'd need a couple of things. One, a good director. Two, a good lead to actually play the guy, and in Danny Boyle and James Franco (as mountaineer Aron Ralston) you get those things in 127 Hours. The film uses a number of interesting, quirky techniques to get its point across, using flashbacks to illustrate the events that have lead Ralston up to this point, the friends and family he's left behind, but also using flash-forwards to hypothetical situations. For example, at one point it torrentially rains, flooding the canyon which Ralston is stuck in and he has a hallucination that the water has freed his arm. In another situation he envisages a pulley system around the rock actually succeeding. This, and other interesting visual effects - shots from the inside of Ralston's rapidly-emptying water bottle, a curious sequence in which Franco interviews himself on a video camera as if he's the guest on his own talk show, Scooby Doo being a recurring character in hallucinations - really get you inside Ralston's mind as he loses it in this seemingly hopeless situation.

One thing the film really got across was the utter horror of the situation beyond the hideous nature of the amputation. I'll be honest, I found the bits where Franco was simply standing there, fruitlessly attempting to pull his arm from behind a rock, more disturbing than the actual bloody violence. It really conveys a harrowing sense of despair and creates the claustrophobic environment in which Ralston was stuck so when he finally does hack his own arm off it's less of an act of self-mutilation and more an attempt at survival, so you kind of have to encourage him as he does it. The amputation is recreated in amazingly disgusting detail, aided by tremendous additional effects, such as the sound of a bullet being fired from a gun as he cuts through tendons in his arm. You feel Ralston's pain, you go on that journey with him, so when he succeeds in getting free at last after five days of pure hell you can't help but be filled with emotion. It's a definite tear-jerker at that moment. James Franco's performance is absolutely stunning, a definite Oscar contender if not winner. Not every actor could carry this type of film (and seriously, it's pretty much all him, the co-stars aren't in any danger of stealing the limelight) but Franco's performance is flawless.

Overall, this is one of the best films I have ever seen. It wrenches at your gut, it tugs at your heart-strings (whatever they are), it does all sorts of stuff to all sorts of body parts. This is a triumph in every single way. I know this is technically a 2010 film but what the fuck, it came out over here in 2011. So I think I might have my best film of 2011 already. Two thumbs up.