Review: 127 Hours - ****

Danny Boyle won the Best Director OSCAR® two years ago for the Best Picture winning “Slumdog Millionaire.”  Now he follows that film with the incredible and engaging “127 Hours” starring James Franco (“Spider-Man”) as real-life adventurer Aron Ralston.  Amantha and I saw the film this past weekend at the AMC 30 at The Block at Orange and were very impressed with the way Boyle was able to so successfully make you feel what Ralston went through during this five day period.

Ralston, a former engineer and current outdoor sports supply store employee, is off on his latest adventure.  As he gets ready to head for Utah’s Canyonland National Park, specifically Blue John Canyon, we see him frantically pack and ignore phone messages from his mother and sister.  He could easily pick up the phone and let them know where he’ll be that weekend but he doesn’t.  He wants to just take off alone, have his adventure and then return to civilization.  We also see him looking for his Swiss Army knife.  He can’t find it but we the audience see it, just out of his reach in a cupboard above his head.  His fingers nearly touch it but he soon gives up, deciding it’s not a big deal if he can’t find it.

The opening of the film shows us crowds of people, which is exactly what Ralston is looking to get away from as he leaves his truck behind and sets off on his bike across the wide open spaces of the Utah desert toward the canyons.  He rides as far as he can before locking his bike to a tree and proceeding on foot.  Along the way he meets two girls who are a little turned around on their own adventure.  He offers to guide them and also shows off his cocky attitude about the environment and his mastery of it.  After bidding the girls good-bye, he arrives at Blue John Canyon.  A misstep leads to him falling into the canyon followed by a boulder he knocked loose that pins his right arm to the canyon wall.

It’s at this point the title of the film finally appears on screen and the movie really begins.  Over the next five days, Ralston tries to move the boulder, fruitlessly yell for help, and ration his little remaining water.  Understanding that his arm is “dead”, he contemplates cutting it off but realizes the cheap utility knife he brought, instead of the Swiss Army knife he couldn’t find, would not be able to cut through the bone.  His time is spent making video messages he hopes will someday make it to his family, thinking about how his adamancy about not letting anyone know where he would be was very stupid and hallucinating about moments from the past as well as a vision of his future son.

Most of the film is a very intimate one man show in which Franco is presented in close-ups.   His expressions pull us into the canyon with him and you feel every emotion right along with him.  This is certainly a showcase for a very talented actor who is very likely to receive an OSCAR® nomination for his performance.  The film’s climax has been reported to cause fainting and Amantha and I were squirming but don’t let that deter you from seeing this outstanding film from one of the best modern directors.