127 Hours

Rating: 4/5

A grueling and harrowing film to watch, 127 Hours is a remarkable true account of the lengths a human being will go in order to survive.

27 year old Aron Ralston (James Franco) is an avid canyoner, mountain climber, and thrill seeker. One weekend, he decides to have an adventure in the Blue John Canyon in Utah. With a backpack of supplies, his bike, and a couple of cameras, Aron heads out into the canyons, but doesn't tell anyone where he's going.

While energetically running through the landscape, Aron falls down into a crack in the canyon, and his arm becomes pinned to the wall by a large boulder. No matter how hard he tries, Aron cannot release his crushed arm from its' trap. With only a small amount of rations, Aron has the gruesome realization that if he doesn't do something drastic to free himself, he will soon die.

Given the film's subject matter, there are only a handful of cast members throughout the movie. We really only see the supporting characters in the beginning and the end of the film, making James Franco cary the weight of the movie on his shoulders. Franco spends most of the movie's duration standing in the same spot, so he must rely on his face to portray his emotions, rather than using a lot of body language to aid in his performance. He is able to tap into the frustration, anguish, and fear that Aron Ralston must have been experiencing during his ordeal, and makes 127 Hours both compelling and distressing to watch.

When a film has a claustrophobic setting, there is the obvious challenge of making sure that the movie stays interesting to its' viewers. 127 Hours makes sure to break the monotony of the scenes of Aron inside the crevasse, with shots of the expansive landscape of the canyons. This not only adds some variation into the film, but also shows how small Aron is in comparison to where he is trapped; making his situation appear even more confined and desolate.

Though I found some of the editing and directorial choices to be a bit over done, 127 Hours is an incredible story. What Aron Ralston went through in order to free himself from the boulder is a concept that is so unfathomable, you have to see it to truly believe and understand it. This movie is the ultimate survival tale, and is proof of how far our instincts to stay alive will take us.