Unreal Movie Review: 127 Hours

When you hear people are fainting in their seats during a movie all across the country, that’s a pretty high bar to set right off the bat. It may sound like hyperbole, but that’s actually been the case with a few older folks who couldn’t handle the intensity of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, and what his star, James Franco’s Aron Rolston, does to get out of his perilous situation.

This isn’t one of those “inspired by true events” bullshit productions we see in every new thriller out these days, rather this a true tale of one man and his battle to survive against all odds. The fact that it’s a true story is a double edged sword. On one hand, you know the ending, on the other, when you see the journey to get there, you’ll be even more stunned that it’s real.

It’s a straightforward tale. An adventurous guy takes a weekend trip into the desert for some biking and climbing. After meeting up with some girls on the trail for a stretch (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn), they go their separate ways and Aron decides to freeform climb nearby. But a loose boulder sends him tumbling down a crevasse, and at the bottom the rock pins his arm to the canyon wall.

Good times ahoy!

To think that the book Rolston wrote after this ordeal is called “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” is certainly appropriate, and it’s no spoiler to tell you that he ends up writing that book with one hand. With limited food and water, with no one knowing where he is, Rolston had to cut his arm off to live.

The entire movie is building toward this triumphant and horrific moment, but before it comes we see Rolston exhaust all possible options. He hammers away at it, punching, chipping, pounding, but nothing works. He tries to erect an elaborate pulley system, but it won’t budge. In the end, a tiny dull blade is his only option.

To say James Franco gives a great performance in this film is an understatement, rather he IS the movie, and it succeeds or fails with him. And as powerful as the film turns out, it’s a credit to Franco as an actor, and it reveals dramatic depths we never know he had. Not many people could have a camera two inches away from their nose at all times and still give a compelling performance, but Franco does just that.

I was also excited to learn through close up camera shots that he can’t grow a full beard just like me.

Before his grand escape, he deals with all the different emotions someone in this situation would go through. We get to see fun-loving, adventurous Aron at the beginning of the film, when he meets the last two people to see him before his mishap. But after he’s stuck we see rage, loneliness, exhaustion, depression, desperation and borderline insanity, as he starts talking to himself, hosting an imaginary morning show called “The Boulder.”

There was one dream sequence I didn’t particularly appreciate, as it seems like a somewhat realistic means of escape at the time, until the end when you realize it’s just fantasy. Kind of a mean trick to play on the audience, but I guess it was meant to have the same effect on us as it did on him when he woke up and saw that he was still in dire straits, and it was all just a dream.

Director Danny Boyle is forced to stray from his typical action packed style here, as his subject is standing still for most of the film. The way he shoots, alternating between distorted reality and claustrophobia keeps things moving, although anyone will see that this is Franco’s movie more than it’s his.

Don’t you do it!

As for that dreaded bone-breaking, flesh-sawing, nerve-cutting, arm-removing scene? It’s as intense as you’d imagine, and even someone like me, almost fully numbed to movie violence, was still squirming around in my seat. But that moment and the ones that follow are breathtaking, and we feel as free as Rolston.

It’s a great film, with an even better performance from Franco. Not for the faint of heart, but if you can stand it, it’ll make you think twice about taking your life and everyone in it for granted.

5 out of 5 stars