Review of 127 Hours (2010) by Emmanuel T — 18 Jul 2012

The first 16 minutes of the film offers viewers life outside from the isolated canyon area, and it offers different faces as well. But once the 16 minutes are over, viewers must force themself into being alone with Aron Ralston as he is trapped by a frustrating boulder. The rest of the film (despite the ending) is nothing but Aron being trapped. This could have been easily made into a boring movie, but instead it is surprisingly entertaining. One of the reasons for it being entertaining is because there are some flashback sequences added into the film, but even though flashbacks are added we are never away from Aron. This is because the flashback sequences are being played into a split screen. Not getting the picture?

Well let's picture this:

A 2 player Ã, (C)Nintendo game with a view of the first player at the top screen, and the second player on the lower screen. Better? Good.

The scenes in this film don't just stay on the top and on the bottom of the screen though, but they can move from the left, and to the right side of the screen as well. And don't worry about being lightheaded from this, because the flashbacks only last for a short while. Aron Ralston is played by James Franco, and he does a very good job with that. He has fitted into his character perfectly, and he adds charm at most and every moment, even the tragic ones. Now despite James Franco's wonderful performance, the groundbreaking soundtrack, the beautiful cinematography, and the emotionally moving scenes, the film could have added more of a survival theme. Besides having to see this guy drink his own urine, becoming trapped, doing something insanely painful in order to escape, and being low on food supply...these things do not occur too often enough. In fact most of the film stalls its time with his thoughts of hope, family, and friends rather than making audiences see his survival goals. There could have been more added, in fact they left out some survival attempts from Aron's real life story. They did add one thing to his survival though, and here it is: In one scene Aron views a picture of Kristi on his digital camcorder and is about to masturbate to it. But instead he does not. The real life Aron Ralston did not admit rather he has had any sexual experiences while being trapped, but still it is added into the film with disrespect. Perhaps something else could have been added instead, rather than the "almost-masturbation scene." Overall, this film is very inspiring and should be watched. 127 Hours dares to do the unthinkable with its plot, and it results into success.