This film is a true story, based off of a book, written by Aron Ralston. Aron (James Franco) decides to go hiking in the canyons of Utah. He doesn't tell anyone, which he later finds out was an extremely stupid idea on his part. He ends up getting trapped in a canyon when a large rock pins his arm to the side of the wall. He manages to survive for a few days and eventually has to cut off his arm, so he can actually live to tell the story, and then sell the rights to Fox Searchlight Pictures.James Franco runs the show in "127 Hours" and it is a truly beautiful thing. He is a phenomenal actor and I like him more each time I see him. It takes a great deal of talent to hold together an entire film by yourself (kind of like Tom Hanks, in "Castaway") and he was up to the challenge and earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. For the majority of the film he is the only one on screen and is pinned inside the canyon. He is the main reason why the film was so enjoyable. He showed a great deal of emotion and determination as he was trying to survive under such awful circumstances. Without him it would have been a completely different film, and probably significantly less enjoyable. James Franco just comes off as extremely likeable and you want him to succeed, even though he shouldn't have been an idiot and run off without telling a soul.
The soundtrack to "127 Hours" is great and I loved just about every minute of it. Right from the opening credits there is a powerful score, that came off as sounding rock-ish to me. There were a lot of drums and guitars playing throughout. At least I think so. I'm no expert on musical instruments or anything. It added intensity to the film which is always nice, especially a film where the climax is the man character cutting off his own arm. Also, sound in general was used beautifully. One of the areas this is seen is when Aron is cutting his arm and you can actually hear the nerves being severed. It sounds gross and added power to the scene. Most sounds in general, like rain pouring into the canyon were exaggerated to let them stick out more prominently.
The cinematography is also incredible in "127 Hours." Although James Franco is in a small space for the majority of the film the camera catches him at so many different angles, including close-ups and wider shots. This helps to make it more interesting. In general the coloring of the scenes is wonderful as well, with a lot of bland colors like brown and such being present because we are indeed dealing with the great outdoors here. There are extreme long, aerial shots of the canyons as well. I loved these because the camera gradually moved farther away from James Franco, ultimately showing how miniscule he was compared to all the natural fun surrounding him.
There are several flashbacks and fantasies throughout, for those of you who are worried that it's just James Franco stuck between a rock, staring at you for 95 minutes. This including flashbacks of the women in his life, the girls he met earlier on the trip, and his family while he was growing up. Some of these seemed a little random at times, and it appears that he dated really dumb girls. Overall, they gave you some incite into Aron, as a person. Flashbacks are a nice technique to use in film, and generally speaking "127 Hours" did it well, I thought.
The only major things that I disliked was the use of split screens. At times the screen would be split into three sections and a different scene or picture would be going on. As a rule I think this is a bad idea and just comes off as cheesy to me. Another thing was at times someone, probably Danny Boyle, decided it would be a good idea to have a scene rewound in fast motion, like when Aron first falls and gets tracked. I thought this was on the cheesy side too. I mean Aron jokes around a little bit to try to alleviate the pain and horror of his predicament, but the movie isn't cheesy, so I could have done without those, and a couple others.
For those who have weak stomachs: you may vomit during this film. I heard that has happened to people who watched it when it was first released. There is a couple minute scene that is quite graphic and bloody, showing Aron breaking the bone in his arm and eventually cutting it off. I personally didn't vomit, because I'm not into that sort of thing.
One last thing: there is very little talking in the film, when compared to most. This may turn people off of it, but I hope that it doesn't. Talking isn't always necessary. The visuals and the score/sound moved the plot along just fine. However, James Franco did talk to himself while he was stuck, I guess to pass time. Mainly, his face and body movements or lack thereof were able to convey feelings.
Overall, this film was highly entertaining and certainly worthy of being nominated for Best Picture, Actor, Director, and a few other Academy Awards. At 95 minutes the film is the perfect length, for something like this. Any longer and things would have felt dragged out and people most likely would have stopped paying attention. James Franco proved himself to be a wonderful actor yet again and it's worth it just to see his smiling face...extremely talented. Also, Danny Boyle is a great director and this was a nice follow up to "Slumdog Millionaire." Great film by the way, in my opinion better than "127 Hours," but then again that plot is completely different. 3 out of 4 stars...I would recommend it though, if you can get over a couple minutes of blood.
-Joseph Sbrilli
No comments:
Post a Comment