Presented at the last London Film Festival, 127 Hours is Danny Boyle’s last effort and so far more introspective work. Based on the true story of Aron Ralston, the movie is about this mountain-climber adrenaline-junkie who during a usual outdoor trip in the Blue John Canyon, Utah, falls into a crevasse and gets stuck with his hand under a boulder. Basic problems: nobody knows where he is, he did not left a message to anyone, has a little food and a little water.
The movie then becomes a journey into Aron’s mind. Downthere he can’t do anything but trying to stay alive, mind-wandering and dealing with his past, his regrets and his existential views on destiny. Everything recorded on camera. Danny Boyle’s presence and visual virtuosism can be clearly seen throughout the whole movie, with flashy split-screens, rapturous camera work, and delirious sequences that recalls his precedent The Beach, along with a soundtrack assembled ad hoc to tie together different emotions and thoughts. James Franco gives an outstanding performance, and while his character tries “not to lose it”, the viewers try not to be distracted by Danny Boyle’s intrusive preoccupation of not making the movie slow down. As Aron’s hopes dwindle so do the director’s tricks to drag the movie to the last poignant and gruesome sequence where Aron comes at terms with himself.
Thanks to magnificent landscapes and to the eclectic and visionary Boyle, 127 Hours is surely effective and intense, but the moral of the story remains too simple and ego-centered to really get to your stomach.
Loneliness and selfishness are not the same thing and can be mutually exclusive. Soaking up solitude does not necessarily mean to be a careless egoist.
The problem arises when you don’t have a good quality knife!
