Clearly "127 Hours" is a good film in general, but for everyone is gotta pay close attention to his likes and dislikes. Surely the performance of James Franco is great and it has to be because basically he is the only person you see on the screen for about 1 hour. Other than that performance the movie has no action and no dialogues. It´s one of those milestone films that are somewhat groundbreaking but are not accessible for the everyone in the audience, because let’s face it most people visit the cinema to get blown away by visuals or effects or whatever. This movie does nothing in that direction might not be the typical go-to big-screen movie but still it is a great movie with emotions, a great character and just plain and simple nice techniques to showcase the situation James Franco´s character is in.
(From here on to the end spoilers can be involved!)
The movie itself is about the true story of the climber Aron Ralston, who leaves his normal environment to discover a bit of a Utah desert landscape and ends up being trapped with one arm under a boulder in a small "canyon". What follows are the 127 hours he survives and tries to stay focused and positive and not losing himself because of the bad situation he is in.
The thing about this movie is that it is a one-man show by James Franco only mixed up with some hallucinations and some trips down memory lane while he is tripped under the boulder. Regardless of that is the great emotions that James Franco´s character shows throughout the movie, he is not going nuts, or cries all the time, he always manages to stay positive about his situation and even can joke about his dumb departure without leaving a note, and about dumb laws about missing people and so on. So the movie has a really serious tone just because he is about to die alone in a little canyon but still the film manages to mix it up with actual "funny" stuff.
Also the technique that is used to burst out of the silent film is actually a nice way. Aron has nothing but a camera in this cliff, so he talks to the camera, first of a bit desperate like when somebody finds this tape please send it to my mum and dad and stuff like that, but later he gets funny, or just talks about the fact that he has nothing left to eat or drink which makes the movie more accessible than a complete character study of Aron Ralston in silents. It´s comparable to "Buried" where Ryan Reynolds only talks to his cell-phone and drives the story through that otherwise it´s just him in a casket, breathing,snorring and moving. So both films use media access or so to burst out of the silent film structure to make it more enjoyable for the audience.
Whatsoever the film has some great use of silence in a way you wouldn´t expect it to be. First of it´s great to see, that they don´t tear jerk the fact that Aron is trapped, he doesn´t scream he holds his composure and just stays calm thinking of a way to get out of this situation.
In another scene, actually the last scene in the canyon, where he desperately cuts off his arm in order to free himself he needs to cut a ligament and he BURSTS in scream from the pain, and it is just an epic cinematic experience to see him scream but not hear it because monumental sounding music is hitting and his screams are silenced. Just an epic experience with the great use of music. This movie is not build around visuals or so, it´s build around a sound and emotion mix that is simply great.
The memories and hallucinations are sometimes a bit weird and seem out of place at some points. I mean he is just dreaming about parties, beer and stuff like that. It can be a possibility if you are thirsty as hell and you are lonely and stuff, but they just seemed to be a little bit out of place here. Also the Scooby-Doo reference was a bit weak, sure it was the dream or hallucination about the girls he met before the accident, the girls he obviously liked a lot, but those things seemed to be a bit forced every once in a while.
The thing with this movie is, that you have to really check your film-collection first before you decide to watch it. If you are an action fan stay away from it, but if you like the experience of a score that is used to perfection, a character that is simply inspiring because of his will to not give up and not lose control, and if you like great acting ability it´s definitely worth checking this one out!
For me the movie did quite good. I like character studies and I like more silent films without the big action pretty much. The scene that totally convinced me that I like this movie is the ending, with the score and the emotions and stuff like that it is just so powerful that you can really feel with Ralston and really dig this character, and in a way admire that character for what he sustained throughout those 127 hours!
Rating : 8,5 of 10
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