127 Hours Review

127 Hours is a film by director Danny Boyle (28 Day Later) that stars James Franco (Spiderman) as a mountain climber who becomes trapped underneath a boulder after descending a canyon in Utah. This is the real-life story of Aron Ralston who wrote a biography about the events following his near-death experience. Often times when you see the words BASED ON A TRUE STORY it makes you wonder how much of the story being told in the film is actually "based" on what really happened. Comparisons aside I thought the actuall movie was really well done. Guy climbs canyon, guy gets trapped by huge boulder, then guys tries to free himself before time and in this case his life runs out. Seems pretty straight forward but the movie actually peeked my interests more then I thought it would given the fact that I knew about the story of Aron Ralston before watching the film. The most interesting parts of the film is when Aron (Played by Franco) films himself with his home video camera throughout the movie. Those scenes, even for a brief second make you forget that the main character is in some really deep (As Aron says in the movie...) doo-doo.

The movie really gets going once Aron is actually trapped underneath the boulder. After trying every viable option to free himself (his forearm being trapped between the boulder and the canyon wall), he slowly looks back on his life and some of the decisions he's made throughout that has led him to the situation he's now. He spends six days trapped in the canyon with water and food running low. Eventually has to consume is own urine in order to keep going. Through it all Aron's will to live took over and eventually did the one, though-be-it gruesome thing he had to do in order to free himself. Throughout the movie there are flashback of Aron's life before being trapped in the canyon. He thinks back on his family, a past girlfriend and friends and even has a premonition about the future. All while trying to figure out a way to free himself. Danny Boyle was the perfect director for the film given his track record for displaying characters who at first seem too weak to overcome the current situation but persevere and are better for it in the end. Overall I think the story was believable and that's without having the whole based on a true story label thrown in my face. It showed what a guy would do in order to stay alive when death is seemingly 127 Hours away.

4.5 out of 5 stars