Eeeeeeeew!

You gotta love Danny Boyle. He has directed Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions, and my pick for best movie of the year two years ago, Slumdog Millionaire. He makes unusual movies and mostly they are very good. His new movie is 127 Hours, the real-life story of Aron Ralston (see pic). He's the hiker who was trapped when I rock fell on his arm while he was way off the grid in Canyonlands National Park. Since he didn't tell anyone where he was going, and he was unlikely to be found, he had a choice of slow death, or to try and cut his arm off so he could get away. You all know what he did. Anyway, this may seem like a strange choice for a movie. It's definitely dramatic, but the whole story is about a guy stuck by himself for days while he cuts his own arm off. Yuck.

 

James Franco took on the role of Ralston, and the story is shown in very straightforward way. 127 Hours doesn't waste a lot of time with the back story. In the first scene, Franco is loading up his backpack and getting ready to leave for Canyonlands. The one bit of foreshadowing is that he can't find his Swiss Army knife. He does meet and help out a couple of cute female hikers (Amber Tamblyn & Kate Mara). They invite him to a party, but he fails to tell them where he is going and soon after, he falls into a fissure when a boulder gets loose and ends up with his arm wedged beneath it. He has a little water but no food. So he tries various things to shift or lift the rock but to no avail. 

Franco has a video camera and begins a running commentary including messages to his friends and loved ones. At this point in 127 Hours we start to get the back story of his life.  We meet his parents (Treat Williams & Kate Burton) and his ex-girlfriend (Clémence Poésy) and find out that he's a bit of a slacker who works in a outdoor gear store, and hasn't committed to anything except extreme sports. As time goes on and the water runs out, the flashbacks turn into hallucinations. The supporting cast are good but they aren't on screen very much. If Franco's parents and ex look familiar, you've probably seen them around. Treat Williams has done a bunch of TV and movies (Once Upon a Time in America) and Kate Burton played Meredith Grey's Alzheimer's-inflicted mother on Grey's Anatomy. Clémence Poésy played Fleur Delacour in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The subject matter of 127 Hours, coupled with the fact that the viewer is forced to watch while Franco breaks his arm and then hacks it off with a very blunt instrument, is a bit of a turn off. My girlfriend wouldn't even go into the theatre. She saw Fair Game instead. I watched 127 Hours, but I have to say I closed my eyes quite a bit during the last half hour or so. Despite this, it's a very good film. Franco is great. During what is, in essence, a 90 minute soliloquy, he does a very good job of being upbeat and keeping the story moving, as does the director, Danny Boyle. It's a very simple storyline with a minimum of subplots and the viewer gets dragged along inexorably toward the uplifting but very gory climax. The plot is unbelievable, no more so because it is true. Not only does Franco cut the arm off, but then he has to rappel down a cliff (with one arm) and walk out until he runs into some hikers and is rescued. It is an amazing story told very well but I just don't think many people consider it to be a date movie.