Movie Review: 127 Hours

Way back when, your author used to fancy himself a movie critic. And on occasion, some people he hasn't talked to in a while will immediately ask if he still reviews movies. Since he usually has to begrudgingly admit that he is still waiting tables instead, there will occasionally be movie reviews posted here at BMC—not necessarily new or even the most recent releases, but still technically reviews—just so he can say he indeed still bitches about what's getting too much/not enough attention. Reviews will offer a quick take that ends with a brief summarizing thought that, in the spirit of Metacritic or Sound Opinions, will be in green (denoting a positive opinion), yellow orange (mixed opinion) or red (negative opinion). And sorry, but no star-ratings or letter grades.

Today's review: "127 Hours," originally released September 4, 2010 at the Telluride Film Festival.



THREE THINGS I LIKED:

1. DANNY BOYLE PRETTY MUCH DOES THE IMPOSSIBLE — Unless you yourself have been living under a rock, you're probably well aware of what extremes 27-year-old Aron Ralston had to go to in order to free himself from a Utah canyon in 2003 when his right arm was pinned underneath a boulder. The knowledge of that climactic moment, however, does not take away from the overall sense of liberation the movie achieves when that fateful moment finally occurs. And moreover, utilizing his usual dazzling stylistic tricks—such as split-screens and rapid cuts—Boyle effectively takes the audience in and out of his hero's altered state even when Ralston can't go anywhere.
2. JAMES FRANCO, YOUR TABLE IS READY — If there were ever any doubts in regard to his leading man potential, then 127 Hours buries every last one of them. Make no mistake, Franco assumes a huge task here in keeping the audience riveted while stuck in a setting no wider than the span of his shoulders. The powerful transformation from the thrill-seeking hiker with playful jock bravado to the more solemn, ruefully snarky realization that Aron had always been an isolationist even before he found himself trapped proves that Franco's no lightweight.
3. IT'S LIKE CAST AWAY, BUT BETTER BECAUSE ... — It's hard not to recall the oftentimes absorbing 2000 tale that saw Tom Hanks stranded and doing a solo act for a majority of the picture—but thankfully, unlike the needless additional half-hour or so of revisiting complications that picture couldn't resolve anyway, Boyle doesn't allow 127 Hours to go on for a minute longer than it needs to.

THREE THINGS I DIDN'T:

1. IT'S LIKE CAST AWAY, BUT LACKS ... — Any uncertainty about what's to come, really. While the film is quite masterful at making us recognize what led Ralston to do what he did, anybody with knowledge of the story beforehand is obviously going to know how this ends up.
2. TOO STYLISH? — Considering its hero can't well go anywhere and keeping in mind Boyle's flair for keeping his movies busy—both visually and audibly—127 Hours has to pull out all the stops, occasionally feeling as though maybe the director was a tad too concerned with losing his audience.
3. THE CLIMACTIC MOMENT WILL PREVENT MANY FROM EVEN CONSIDERING IT — I've already seen or encountered a number of people who, knowing full-well what Ralston had to do to free himself, have refused to endure the sight of that sequence. It's a rough sequence (I suppose ... I didn't find anything about it too excessive or offensive), but it's a shame that there's some who will pass on the experience because of those few minutes alone. 

25 WORDS OR LESS:

Even knowing what you're in store at the end for can't prepare you for how mesmerized you'll be along the way.