Steve Reviews 127 Hours

Think about it. That’s just over 4 days. 4 days to you and me seem to fly by. “Gee, I wish I had more time.” “Where did today go?” I hear these sentences daily. But for Aron Ralston, 127 hours was an eternity. And this isn’t a work of fiction – this is real.

James Franco plays Ralston, a free-spirited fellow who spends his time exploring every crevice of mountains and caves. But on one Saturday in 2003, Ralston took a trip that changed his life. A simple misstep resulted in a fall that buried his right arm under a boulder. Cut off from civilization, and with very limited supplies, Ralston survived for just over 4 days, until he was forced to do the unthinkable. With his sanity pushed to the brink, he cut off his own arm and crawled to safety.

The movie itself was OK. It’s hard to focus on one thing for a whole hour, and without Danny Boyle at the helm, it probably would have been a real sleeper. I mean, who better to show someone’s decent into madness than Boyle? James Franco also put in 100%. I’ll go so far as to say that it’s the performance of his career. Do I smell an Oscar nomination?

And then there’s “the scene.” The theatre I visited actually had a warning sign up on the auditorium door that warned that the climax had been known to cause vomiting and “in rare cases,” fainting. It’s like The Exorcist all over again! Of course, I just got more excited. I have a strong stomach, and I tend to salute the visual effects team for making we wonder, “How’d you do that?” So I didn’t think it was that awful, but yes, I can see people being disturbed by it. I think the mental breakdown is far worse than the mutilation, though. Wondering what I would have done for 127 Hours is the nightmare I am left with.

-Steve
2.2.2011