My review of 127 Hours

I had only seen 1/2 of the Best Picture nominees before I went to go see this one and so I went to see this one and then I saw The King's Speech right after it. I'm thrilled I did.

Acting/Characters: We,, let's start with the obvious, James Franco did an excellent job with this one. He easily deserves his best Actor nomination for this film. I mean, he carried the film the entire time and it was so good that it got a Best Picture nomination so some on, he had to have done well. And since it was only him, well, there isn't much else to say about this one. 10/10

Plot: Pretty simple plot too. If I didn't know it was true then I would say that it was just a good story and a good suspense film. But, knowing that this all actually happened and that someone actually had to do all of this to survive because this actually happened to him...well, that just put the plot on a whole other level. It was superbly done too. 10/10

Screenplay: well, it was pretty good too. Half or more of a good performance, most of the time, is a great screenplay to go with it. This screenplay certainly didn't hurt his performance. I would imagine that a lot of the video bits were taken directly out of the real video footage that Ralston shot while trapped. It was also kind of a screenplay light film. I mean, if it was Franco just babbling on all of the 90 minutes then it might get annoying but he didn't talk as much as he could have. But it was an excellent screenplay. 9.5/10

Likableness: I liked it a lot. I really liked the shot where he is trapped and yelling the first time and then the camera pulls back and you see that there is absolutely nothing there. There is no one to possibly hear him. It is just him and blank space. Then you see how truly alone he is and that makes you feel the sense of isolation that he does. I know I'm not the first to say this, but this film is not for the squeamish. But it is excellent. 9.5/10

Final Score: 39/40 97% (N)





TRIVIA TIME: 1. Aron Ralston filmed a daily video diary while he was stuck in the canyon; the footage has only been shown to close friends and family and is kept in a bank vault for safety. Before shooting began both James Franco and director Danny Boyle were allowed to view the footage in order to accurately portray the events in the movie.

2. James Franco was not Danny Boyle's first choice to play Ralston - Cillian Murphy was.

3. The camcorder used by James Franco in the film was the actual one Aron Ralston used when he was trapped in Blue John Canyon.

4. When Aron Ralston was asked how how authentic the film was, he said, "the movie is so factually accurate it is as close to a documentary as you can get and still be a drama."












*POSSIBLE SPOILERS HEAD!!!* (Probably not but you never know)











1. It took 13 men, a winch, and a hydraulic jack to lift the boulder high enough to retrieve Aron's arm from the canyon. In 2004 Aron Ralston went back to the scene of the accident with NBC News Anchor Tom Brokaw to scatter the ashes of his amputated arm over the boulder that had trapped him.

James Franco as Aron Ralston

Aron Ralston