Big Screen Peter: 127 Hours

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie.

review by Peter Lewis

Avoiding superlatives much less cliches when discussing “127 Hours” is a tough task.  The film is nothing short of masterful while the story is as incredible as it is horrifying.

“127 Hours” tells the horrifying true story of Aron Ralston, an adventurous outdoorsman who becomes trapped “between a rock and a hard place” while canyoneering in a remote Utah location. The film is directed by Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director of “Slumdog Millionaire,” and stars James Franco as Ralston.

As a portrayal of a man trapped in the bowels of an isolated canyon, the film has more in common with a stage monologue than it does with most films. Yet, thanks to Boyle and Franco, “127 Hours” is an epic in the truest sense: it is raw and emotive, a great yawp of humanity in the face of long odds.

And it works, damn does it work.

Franco is pitch perfect throughout the film. In the 10 years since his turn on the acclaimed “Freaks & Geeks,” Franco has time and again proven to be an adept and capable actor no matter the scenario, from a hilarious cameo on “30 Rock” to his role as Harry Osborn in the recent spate of Spider-Man films.

Franco seems to easily tilt his performances no matter the scale of the production and “127 Hours” is no different. He’s largely alone through the entirety of the film, yet never becomes tiresome. Wavering between a luckless and incredulous humor to the strained sadness of a man who knows his time on earth has come to an end, Franco easily straddles the emotional borders that encapsulate Ralston’s experience deep within that canyon.

The production, of course, is a marriage. While Franco’s performance is an unequivocal gem, the film could be Boyle’s finest illustration of talent. Throughout his career, Boyle has proved himself a capable director, creating captivating content from a variety of sources.

The man knows how to handle a story, plain and simple. But in “127 Hours,” Boyle takes this one-man show and transforms it into perhaps the most captivating cinema of 2010. By weaving Ralston’s memories and hysteria-induced premonitions into the experience, Boyle not only gives weight to the story, but helps the audience associate even more deeply with Ralston. With inventive camera angles and interesting juxtapositions, Boyle creates an engaging dynamic.

As a sort of pièce de résistance, Boyle uses Ralston’s position as a “lone wolf” of sorts to illustrate the deep and innate association all humans have with each other. In the opening and closing scenes of the film, Boyle splices several scenes of mass populations together. When the film begins, the obvious intonation is one of Thoreau and Livingstone, that eternal call to escape the crush of the masses and into the wilderness.

It’s a prayer of freedom.

As the film closes, the feint is complete. Those masses that once appeared as weights on the soul are now seen as the connectedness we so desperately crave in our darkest and most isolated hours.

• 127 Hours is not playing in the Fort Smith area. But it should be, and may do so when the Oscar buzz builds.

Feedback
Feel free to contact Peter Lewis at [email protected]

You can also track Peter at his website.