127 hours ~~~1/2

Arrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhh – I’m cycling down a hill in the middle of the outback in America. Yeaaaaaaaaahhhh - I’m hiking up hills and jumping over rocks and skidding down mountains… Whoooooooooooaaaaaaaaa – this is so FUN!!! Wake up, wake up…. Oh, I’m actually sitting in a cinema watching a guy doing all this. What fun!

James Franco is Aron Ralston, a real go get ‘em type of guy. You know, the kind of fella who, at the drop of a hat, is out and about in the wilds, having adventures, biking up mountains and generally being at one with the outdoors.

On this occasion, in the wilds of Utah, back in 2003, Aron has an accident. He takes a fall and gets supremely, unequivocally, horribly trapped to a rock wall by a huge, immoveable bolder. Bugger. And this is a true story…

Director and co-writer Danny Boyle does a magnificent job of portraying both the lead up to, and actual, accident and the ensuing problems Aron faces. As you can imagine, being stuck in the middle of nowhere, with little water, no food and no one except a transient crow to keep you company, Aron seems to be well and truly f***ed.

The filmic version of what actually happened is pretty amazing really, considering Franco spends 90% of his time on screen alone. It’s exhilarating, sad, lonely, human and pretty humbling to see how Aron dealt with the situation and Boyle does a great job of keeping the viewer interested in the character and situation.

The cinematography is great – there are some stunning visual effects throughout which are put to good use to enliven what otherwise might have been a rather staid film. Since one can only assume that the real Aron also had a video camera, the use of this throughout the film is put to good purpose. It’s his link to the ‘outside’ world and to those he loves. We see and hear his thoughts and feelings through the video and because of this, the audience is sometimes tricked into thinking hallucinations or flashbacks are actual recordings. It’s a neat trick to keep us guessing what’s going on in his mind.

The scenery really speaks for itself – the beautiful sandstone rocks and sheer vastness of the countryside are amazing.

Franco is great. He has enormous potential to be a real class act. I know he may have been seen as a bit of a pretty boy – so was Paul Newman – and he does kind of remind me of a mash up of both Heath Ledger and River Phoenix (weird!), but I think he’ll really become a big star and even better actor. Best actor nod from the Oscars – his time? Not yet. But it will some day, in something even better than this.

I’m really rather pleased to have seen this film. Boyle and the team did good. I now really want to go off into the wilds again for another adventure. Perhaps not to a lonely canyon though. I’ll leave that to the experts… although, saying that, nature does have a habit of getting even those who know what they’re doing into trouble! And another thing, always tell someone where you’re off to. You never know when you might need to be found.

Rock on! (Not the most appropriate thing to say, I know, but a great film, nevertheless.)

Viewed: 19th January 2011