127 hours
Aaron Ralston is your typical 20-something. Nothing can stop him. He’s independent, self –reliant, but most of all, filled with unbridled energy and vigor. Aaron’s occupation is rock climbing, with is current endeavor in the Robber’s roost area in Utah. His day is typical: He bikes for about 20 miles, spends the next 10 hiking across the more mountainous terrain, and then goes on his way home. But a curveball goes in his way, one of prodigious size. Namely a boulder that lands on his forearm. Left at his disposal for survival are a dull knife, a chicken burrito, and a 500 millimeter thermos of water.
The film works so well with two things: Boyle’s kinetic directing and Franco’s performance. Boyle goes beyond the physical limitations of this isolated location, and takes advantage of this through the use of flashbacks, hallucinations and creative camera work. The way Boyle captures Ralston’s slow descent into delusion and paranoia is brilliant display of what can be accomplished with a limited cast. The highlight of it all: an interview between Ralston and himself, which is all I can say on the matter. For Franco, its his simultaneous gravitas of man close to death with that of an everyman who shrugs off all of life’s problems with relative ease. This isn’t Harry Osborn, or the Stoner from Pineapple Express, this a professional, a man whose main job is to convey the feelings and thoughts of a fictional character, or in Ralston’s case, a “fictionalized portrayal” of a real person. How this interplay comes about is up for you to see. If not anything Franco deserves an nomination if not a definite win for Best Actor this year.
The basic thesis one might get from a first glance look at the premise is one of derision; look at how much of a mitigated disaster this man caused by not notifyin his friends or family about his trip. He could have gotten into the trip without losing his arm- spoiler alert for real life- and would have ended up living a normal lifestyle of extreme sports. But Ralston’s story is not about what could’ve and should’ve happened. The indomitable spirit of a single man against the elements, his own doubts and potential death is what makes this film.
