David O'Connell127 Hours
February 9th 2011 03:02
Danny Boyle’s latest is a startling survival story, ripped not from the pages of some writer’s fertile imagination but from the real-life misadventure of Aron Ralston (James Franco), a young hiker bursting with enough vitality to emerge victorious against any opponent Mother Nature could set in his path. A cocksure attitude had obviously allowed Ralston to remain untouched his entire life but in 2003 a nasty quirk of fate was set to test the limits of this 27 year old's mental and physical endurance as he threaded a lone course through Utah’s isolated desert canyons.
The early scenes of 127 Hours portray Ralston in a less than empathetic light; in a frenetic, rapidly-edited sketch we watch him bounding about in preparation for another seemingly ordinary day. The cockiness that defines him and will later place uncomfortable emphasis on the foolishness of his solidarity is implied - though it’s not overconfidence that will see him pinned by a rock down a narrow crevice; a nasty quirk of fate takes care of that.
As is his wont, Boyle makes bold creative choices in terms of visual representing what feels like a potentially enclosed narrative space. He stitches his film together with kaleidoscopic sights both real and imagined, allowing his pair of D.P’s, Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, free reign as Ralston’s internal life begins to overwhelm the limited perspective of his anguished isolation.
Franco’s performance is certainly a career highlight for him. Surrounded by a set that convincingly replicates the narrow crevice, he holds the weight of the project on his shoulders. Though some of the surreal insights into his deteriorating mental processes call for something that approaches performance art, Franco impressively maintains a grip on Ralston’s disturbing slide into impotent despair.
Boyle has tackled the project’s technical challenges head-on by employing the same flair he used to enliven Slumdog Millionaire (2008). In part inventive trickery, it does occasionally feel like padding to stave off repetitious motifs, but Franco’s grim addiction to his part is compelling, with A. R. Rahman’s score occasionally adding an intense reverb to montage-like sequences of internal warfare of the mind reaching fever pitch.
Ralston admirably never totally succumbs to self-defeating thoughts that threaten to compress his senses and blind him to every conceivable option; finally he must entertain the most drastic strategy of all to extract his weakening body from its natural world encasement.
Towards the end the key visceral moment that we’ve been dreading finally arrives. It comes lathered in a chaotic wash of disarmed memories and phantasmic visions representing the demented, heightened mental state that the wilting Ralston has battled to retain his sanity whilst engaged in a dogged drive for self-preservation. It'll make many audience members squirm - and ponder the wisdom of all that just-consumed popcorn, no doubt about it.
An intense portrait of raw tenacity prevailing over a primitive death instinct, 127 Hours may blur the edges of its central story with artificial flourishes but the result is creative, compelling cinema nonetheless. A grim but ultimately inspiring story innovatively told.
127 Hours opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, February 10.
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Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
hehe! was this unconscious humour punning its way across the page? I thought it fun, interesting review, and I heard people were barfing and fainting..WTF? People need to ahrden the F up!!!
a must see for me.
cheers
fog
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
"Come see Sydney...
the State of Hysteria."
hahaaa!
cheers
fog