Wednesday 2 February 2011

127 Hours [2010]


Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is a harrowing story of human grit and survival against all possible odds, more so given that it is based on true events. Aron Ralston is a young adventure-addict who, while hiking in the hills of Utah gets trapped in a tiny crevice when a rock falls onto him, crashing his right arm in the process. The film details the gut-wrenching 127 hours that Aron spends trapped there, with hardly enough food or water, and how he finally garners enough courage to amputate his own arm in order to once again see the light of day. Yet, despite the portrayal of the nerve-racking ordeal, the film is filled with warmth and humanity – the scenes where he is hallucinating about his past and what is life could be, are very affecting; and the best sequence in the film is where he takes a hilarious (if morbidly so) interview of his own self. The great editing job and sparsely used music brought in a kind of immediacy to the proceedings. And at the forefront of the film lies that powerful performance of James Franco as the deeply unfortunate and ultimately heroic individual the film is based on.








Director: Danny Boyle
Genre: Drama/Adventure Drama/Docu-drama
Language: English
Country: US/UK

2 comments:

Sam Juliano said...

Yes, the self-interview is very powerful, and by and large I agree with your appraisal of this visceral film, which follows in the path of SLUMDOG, even using Rahman's pulsating score. It's not always an easy film to watch, but Franco is extraordinary.

Excellent work here as always.

Shubhajit said...

Thanks Sam. Great to know you concur with my views about the self-interview scene. And yes, as you mentioned, Franco is really good, further accentuating the visceral impact of this film. The film is a difficult watch at times, but it was all worth it.