The new film ‘127 Hours’ is about a hiker that gets trapped in a gorge. Starring James Franco with Director: Danny Boyle (Director of Slumdog Millionaire) (1:33). R: Gore, language.
The appeal of the grisly but gripping “127 Hours” isn’t watching James Franco as a hiker named Aron Ralston find hope in a hopeless situation. That’s par for the course in a drama like this, which is a cross between “Castaway” and “Into the Wild.” No, the kick is in watching Franco think his way out of a deadly place and into just a really bad place.
In Franco’s hands, Ralston is a prime mover, always running this way and that. During an excursion in 2003, Ralston, a 27-year-old Coloradan, goes rock-climbing in Bluejohn Canyon near a national park in Utah. He befriends two pretty fellow hikers (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn), but after frolicking in a lake Ralston heads off on his own, not telling the girls or anyone else where he’s headed.
He winds up miles away in a narrow passage; a hefty rock suddenly falls on his right arm, pinning him to a wall. Ralston, stunned, slowly assesses the situation, cataloguing his tools and storing up his water supply. He makes videos for his family while trying to save himself, until, after five days, he faces a grim choice: either use a small knife to cut off his stuck limb or wind up dead. (Spoiler) He makes the decision to cut his arm off with a pocket knife. (Barf!) The scene is so disturbing that there have been reports of people fainting and throwing up in movie theaters.
Director Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “28 Days Later“) makes the movie kinetic from the start, often using split screen and putting the camera inside Ralston’s water jug, next to his feet, and eventually inside his head as his mental compass spins wildly. It’s exciting but gimmicky, and can sometimes seem empty.
But once Franco’s on his own, everything is played across this terrific actor’s deceptively goofy face. Boyle and co-writer Simon Beaufoy‘s script (from Ralston’s book) keeps the hiker’s pre-calamity life on the periphery, which is fine; as Franco goes from fearful to resigned to resentful of the spot he’s in, we’re absolutely hooked.
