What would you do to survive?
Whether it’s with our friends or in our own heads, that question has been bounced around a time or two in the course of our lives. It’s one most people will never have to answer. In 2003, after spending five days trapped in a canyon, Aron Ralston amputated his own arm, rappeled 65 feet down wall and hiked out out of the canyon. He was taken to safety by a helicopter six hours after severing his arm.
While that story makes for interesting segments on the news, it’s not something you’d think would make for excellent cinema. And, I guess in the hands of most filmmakers, it wouldn’t. Fortunately, Danny Boyle isn’t most filmmakers.
Boyle is the type of director who dileberately strives to be different with every film he tackles. There’s not any one thing, no trademark, that immediately comes to mind when you say “A Danny Boyle Film”. 127 Hours is as different from Slumdog Millionaire as Slumdog is from Sunshine. In a world where people aren’t just relagated to comfort zones, they seem to actively look for them, Boyle looks for opportunity to be daring and different. Sometimes he flourishes, sometimes he fails spectacularly, and sometimes he just accomplishes exactly what he sets out to do.
It helps that James Franco is along for the ride. Franco oozes charisma and charm as Aron; even when his ego gets the best of him, it’s impossible not to love the guy. He’s both self-effacing and cocky, and when he begins to lose his mind it’s those same qualities that keep you entranced by his plight. Those scenes, where we start to see Ralston reaching his wit’s end, are probably where the film is at it’s best. Boyle uses some pretty interesting techniques to convey Ralston’s unraveling.
At its core, 127 Hours is a simple story, simply told. It’s man vs. nature vs himself. It is exactly the movie you imagine it to be. Harrowing, desperate, exciting, cringe-inducing and, ultimately, hopeful.
