127 Hours

Danny Boyle's ambitious follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire feels like the sort of project a first time no-budget director might sink their teeth into in order to prove their worth (an immediate example if the recent film Buried). Boyle has made a wide range of films in his career that span several disparate genres, building up a reputation with a series of cult hits (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine...) before hitting directorial stardom with a Best Director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. How do you follow something like that? Well, in this case you tell a small story in a big way.

The true story of rock climber Aron Ralston is like one of those urban myths: man gets arm caught between some rocks and has to hack it off with a pen knife in order to escape. It doesn't neccessarily sound like a film's worth of story, but when you've got the charismatic presence of James Franco and an arsenal of directorial magic tricks up your sleeve, well, you could probably even make a great film about someone sitting on the toilet and realising they're out of toilet paper.

Ralston (Franco) is a bit of an adrenalin junkie, he loves to hoon around on his pushbike in Blue John Canyon and he considers the place to be a second home to him. We know he gets off on heartracing thrills when we see him stack his bike quite early on and he starts laughing at the fact that he almost seriously hurt himself. It's a brief and almost throwaway scene, but there's more than just the slightest suggestion that Ralston's hubris is going to bring him down and, having previous knowledge of this story, I just knew that his cocky-but-good-natured grin was going to get wiped right off his face. It isn't very far into the film when Aron's arm gets caught between a falling boulder and the wall of a ravine, and this is where the story really starts. It's a tale of survival, realisation, resourcefulness and human foibles.

The real life Ralston was a shameless user of media to record his exploits (namely a digital camera and video recorder) and it's through this fact that Boyle finds a cinematic way-in to the story. It becomes a film-translatable experience... the documentarian aspect lends itself to fly's eyes camera angles and triple-panelled screens demonstrating different viewpoints. We even get shots from inside his drink bottle and inside his arm. Boyle also constructs some impressively seamless digital composite shots, such as one shot of Ralston trapped under his rock that zooms out to show the top of the ravine and the (empty) surrounding desert. Via these various tricks the story is always kept moving, it never becomes static (which is ironic, given that Ralston is stuck in the same spot for most of the film), and it feels very much like a realistic action-thriller in extreme closeup. Every little action becomes magnified... the dropping of a pocket knife, the crawling of ants, etc.

Franco is perfect for this kind of movie. He has the dramatic chops to carry the weight of Ralston's plight and make it realistic, but he's also naturally funny so it's note a chore to watch him also carry most of the film on his own. The use of a video camera confessional lets him demonstrate an easy rapport with his unseen audience, such as scenes where the desperate Ralston imagines he's on a talkshow and begins to admit to himself the mistakes that led him to this horrible situation. It's in this respect that the story is able to transcend a simple survival narrative... in our darkest hours our thoughts turn to ourselves and our failings; the flaws that got us to these moments. These are the things that make us who we are, our strengths and our weaknesses, and Ralston's tale is a cautionary one that demonstrates how our experiences are almost always the sum of our choices - implicit or otherwise.

(On a cynical sidenote) Let's face it, the real Aron Ralston has made his money and fame from a surpreme act of idiocy - the sort of behaviour that leads to death or financially exorbiant rescue operations. The script has to address concepts like hubris and acceptance of fault if it's to get the audience on side... as much as aspects of Ralston's story don't strike me as deserving of acclaim, the real heroes here are Franco and Boyle for presenting it in a suitably cinematic fashion that engages our empathy in just the right portions. It's a cynical way to look at a very well made and high engrossing film, but they hit all the right marks to make the film and a success.

DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufroy, based on the memoir/biography by Aron Ralston.
KEY ACTORS: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Treat Williams, Lizzy Caplan

RELATED TEXTS:
- Aron Ralston's book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, published in 2004.
- The rather artsy Gus Van Sant 2002 film Gerry, loosely based on real life events that occured in Rattlesnake Canyon, New Mexico.
- Touching the Void, a documentary about survival in the Peruvian Andes.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated for Best Actor (James Franco), Best Film, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Song (If I Rise) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
BAFTAs - nomiated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Film Music, Best Actor (Franco), Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.
Golden Globes - nominated Best Actor - Drama (Franco), Best Original Score and Best Screenplay.
Independent Spirit - nominated Best Actor (Franco), Best Film and Best Director.