Its tight ass Tuesday. You know what that means; I can finally afford to see something on the Big Screen.
As its Oscar season; its a tough choice so I go with "127 Hours" directed by Danny Boyle. (You may remember such movies as"Trainspoting" and the multi award winning "Slumdog Millionaire")
The movie chronicles the real life story of American climber Aron Ralston and his torturous 127 hours in the desert.
The movie begins classic Boyle style. AR Rahman soundtrack,screen division and bright colors.
Ralston is played by the ever faithful James Franco. Never has he been just a pretty face for me. He is finally pissing with the big boys. (literally)
There is no mucking around here,just straight into the action.
After a nice dip in a cave pool with some fellow climbers,Ralston reaches his demise early in the piece. I think shit,they've got another 2 hours to fill here-tough job.
Boyle what are you gonna do? How are you going to make this interesting when we've just about had enough of men versus the elements movies?
Well he does just that. The casting of Franco is a gold move. Franco manages to be spot on with EVERY emotion one suffers in response to a trauma. This pretty boy is now on his meteoric rise.
Boyle does not edit the experience with Ralston.We see a man drink his own piss,hallucinate and scream painfully in frustration.We are on the edge of our seats in the amputation scene. Apparantly two people were treated by medics at the Toronto Film Festival.
What an original! Every time Franco hacks away at his arm and hits a raw nerve the soundtrack reacts with an adjoining screeching sound. NOT for the fainthearted.
There is a beautiful moment at the end of this scene. Once Franco is free again,he looks in wander at the remnants of his five day horror show. He quietly says "thankyou". Some may say he is saying thank you for his freedom. I agree but furthurmore he is thanking the experience. As strange as it sounds,any man that can endure this atrocity is surely more than a man.
In real life, Ralston is still a keen adventurer.
Sometimes I feel Boyle labours the point. There is too much reliance on the soundtrack and the juxtaposed visions of Ralstons past/future for me. I find this type of story telling overused and unoriginal.
There was not enough of a backstory for me to care or even understand the significance of Ralstons unborn son.
He'd already demonstrated silence and nature are sometimes piercing enough.
Over all Boyle is still a genius. I look forward to next project.
Jax
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