Rating: ****1/2Naturally, Danny Boyle could only follow-up the relatively light rags-to-riches Indian fairy tale that was Slumdog Millionaire with a true life survival story that features an amputation scene so graphic that it’s reputedly made some audience members seek medical attention. The story of Aron Ralston, who while climbing Blue John Canyon in 2003 became pinned by a boulder and forced to amputate his own arm to get free after five days, is brought to vivid, poignant and occasionally funny and inspiring life in 127 Hours.
Carrying the weight of the film nearly solo is James Franco, who proves himself more than up to the task. Going for long stretches with just himself to react to on screen, Franco proves his chops easily and handily while making Ralston both flawed and heroic. Boyle has said that what he liked about Ralston’s saga is that here was a man, uber-confident in his ability, brought down to Earth and made ordinary in, literally, the most crushing way. 127 Hours works on that level, but there are so many more. It’s cautionary, it’s a hero’s journey, it’s a one-man against the odds story. But mostly though, it’s just great.
Working with many of his Slumdog collaborators, Boyle seems to do quite a lot with a simple survivalist’s story. Starting off like something you’d expect from an extreme sports video, we follow Ralston as he travels to Blue John Canyon in Utah by highway at night to the tune of Fresh Blood's "Never Hear Surf Music Again." He gets up early the next morning and hits the bike trail, jauntily saying into his camcorder that he’ll beat the time it takes to bike to the canyon by 45 minutes. Naturally, it’s all to set up the idea that Aron Ralston is a guy that plays hard and is perfectly confident in his skill.
After a brief interlude where he helps a couple of wayward female hikers (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn) see a whole other side of the park, Ralston suddenly loses his grip as he scales the canyon. A boulder pins his right hand to the canyon wall, but even in this Ralston doesn’t lose his cool. That changes very quickly though. Desperation sets in, there’s a continuing trend of plans that go nowhere, then concern about the lack of food and water, and the slight madness that comes when your trapped between a rock and hard place with no way out.
Smartly, the script by Boyle and Simon Beaufoy doesn’t go too wild with meditations on fate and is quite open about how it was Ralston’s almost reckless confidence is to blame considering that he went out into the wild, and told no one where he was going. Flashbacks and dream states are also used to great effect, but are minimal and compelling. There’s never really any full-blown conflict shown, even in the fleeting glimpses of lost love with a girl played by Clémence Poésy, the focus is on one man in an extraordinary situation. It’s an against all odds tale where the unthinkable becomes doable.
For the record there were no ambulances called, or sudden hysterical walkouts in my screening, but most everybody was bracing for the worst. Even I, who have sat through some pretty hardcore torture porn horror movies, had a hard time watching Franco’s Ralston do ad hoc surgery with nothing but the cheap, China made multi-tool and his own guile. The way the scene is shot and edited though highlights the desperation and impulsiveness of the decision, and when it’s over, even members of the audience feel the exaltation of the moment.
I have a feeling that 127 Hours will certainly be movie award material at the end of the year, with Franco especially deserving of shiny bobbles in recognition of his acting. About 95 per cent of the film is about Ralston’s struggle and Franco owns every minute and you know by how compelling the film is from beginning to end. It’s unstoppably watchable, with the possible exception of the amputation scene (and a little tease about that event, which Boyle inserts earlier in the film). 127 Hours is a one man play about survival and tests perceptions in a very visceral way, and, at the very least, it’s a strong advocate for the buddy system.
