127 Hours
Trying to get all the Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees watched by the time the ceremony rolls around at the end of the month. I'm not entirely sure I would have gotten around to seeing 127 Hours otherwise. It's not that I thought it was going to be terrible; it is, after all, a Danny Boyle movie, and in my experience with Danny Boyle movies, they're usually a good time. It's just that I knew it would be a tough one to watch. And, of course, the difficulty all boils down to one scene... and if you know the story, you know what scene I'm talking about.
My first thought when I heard about the movie was that it would make for one damn compelling watch, especially since they cast James Franco as trapped adventurer Aron Ralston. Franco has always been interesting to me... yes, even in Tristan and Isolde. He exudes a certain very watchable charm on the screen. So, this had the makings of a more interesting version of the Tom Hanks flick, Cast Away. (Not that Hanks doesn't bring his own charm, and I did enjoy that movie, but in the battle of Danny Boyle vs Robert Zemeckis in the arena of interesting movies? I'm taking Boyle...Zemeckis's efforts on Back to the Future notwithstanding). But then I started thinking about it more... the whole thing is going to boil down to one excruciating and pivotal point in the story... oh heck, if you don't know the story by now... look, the dude cuts his own arm off to get free of the boulder that he is trapped under... and it's that scene... a scene I knew they were going to have to show- in what detail, who knew... but there were plenty of stories of people fainting at viewings...it's that scene that just dominated my mind as I weighed whether I should see it. I'm not usually one swayed by gore or violence. I don't know, maybe I'm desensitized or I'm able to tell fiction from reality or whatever. I can handle violence. And a pretty decent amount of gore or explicit violence. It really doesn't affect me. But somehow, this was different. I think it has more to do with the fact that since you know this is based on a true story it's really easy to put yourself in Ralston's shoes. I AM the type of person who, when watching sports and such, sees a someone blow out a knee and immediately my knee starts tingling. This is real. I can imagine how it feels... or at least I think I can. So, what it all came down to this: was self-amputation something I really wanted to experience? (Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman...well, I think it was Owen... wrote something similar to this in his review of the movie. He agreed that it was hard to get the inevitable scene out of your mind, but to truly engage the movie you had to try to go on Ralston's ride with him...or something to that effect... I do know that he commented on the amputation scene's domination of the back of the viewers mind).
Well, I can't say it is something I wanted to experience, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took that dilemma out of my hands by handing it a Best Picture nomination. Discomfort was no match for my desire to see all nominees.
Despite Gleiberman saying I should try to take my mind off of what was to come, I found it hard not to be thinking about it. What was my reaction to it going to be? How was it going to be shot? When was it going to happen? And so on. I mean, that really is the story here right? Well, I suppose there was more to it and Danny Boyle does attempt to make this more than a one-scene movie. Even if Ralston had somehow managed to free himself of that boulder without having to hack off his arm... with a dull multi-tool no less... his ordeal would have been harrowing to say the least. 127 hours of dwindling hope, food, water. You really have to have a will to survive to make it through that. What kind of person could possibly summon the will and spirit to get through this? Even just hanging on to the point where self-surgery is the only option? Answering these questions is where Boyle does his best work. He really tries to get you in the head of Ralston. He wants you to get a feel for who this person is and how he managed to get through this. And in the moments where I could forget... somewhat... what was coming (let me try to express this better... I wasn't worried about the gore... I wasn't afraid that I was going to hork or pass out or anything... just wasn't looking forward to watching this guy do it... inevitably I'm going to put myself in his shoes and well it's just going to be hard to watch... IF that is, the scene was done well... and let me spare you the suspense... yes, it was graphic, but I thought it was done very well) I was easily able to engage the story and the study of this character. Boyle makes an intriguing movie out of this journey into Ralston's head. You really do get a sense of the person he is... and the measure of his will. This also makes it easy to try and put yourself in his shoes and see how you measure up...or how you think you would measure up. It's all very engaging.
As I mentioned though, the inevitable scene does come and it was hard to watch. I was actually squirming. I rarely do that. And again, it's not that I hard to look away because you can see what the inside of an arm looks like... it's more that I got that tingling sensation in MY arm and it's all done in such a way as to encourage you to FEEL Ralston's pain. Not literally, of course, but through some mental/emotional connection. And that was hard to watch. But damn it, a guy's got to do what a guy's got to do. And so he does. And there's your story.
All that aside, this had to have been a somewhat difficult film to make. You have several challenges here: it's basically a one-man show so if you cast the wrong actor, there's no one else to save it for you. Also, a one-man story where the one man spends the vast bulk of the movie stuck in one place can quickly turn boring if it isn't presented in an intriguing way. Finally, you really have to be concerned with over-doing the uplifting parts. Yes, this is a feel-good story in the end. Another of the triumph of the human spirit-type stories... the ordinary dude achieving the extraordinary and all that jazz. You go to heavy on the sugar and you're going to turn people off. There's got to be a balance. All of this, plus you have to get the amputation scene just right so it doesn't devolve solely into satisfaction for the morbidly curious.
On most counts Boyle and Franco deliver. Especially Franco. Definitely a great choice to play the roll. He didn't seem to have any problems being able to embody Aron Ralston, bring to life both the positive and the negative sides of his character. Ralston, much like anyone else, is imperfect. Just because he was able to get himself out of a situation most of us couldn't have survived doesn't mean he's Superman. And Franco does a great job of showing us the depth of this persona. (And, I suppose some credit there goes to Boyle). Boyle also does his part and delivers a watchable movie that while it is heavy on the triumphs, it doesn't avoid the darker moments of desperation. I did have some problems with the style though. Boyle incorporates some of that spastic, edgy shooting style that made Trainspotting the unique movie it was. It doesn't work at all times here. In fact, at times it was just too much... headache-inducing.... I know he had to make the movie interesting, but I'm not sure that bringing in the jiggling or rushed footage was the way to go. The best parts of the movie are where he let's us into the mind of Franco... the flashbacks, the hallucinations, the video-diaries. The way he presents these are what makes the movie engaging. So... I don't know. I'm glad I saw it. It WAS a great story... and a pretty good movie. But in the end... even casting the fact that the crucial scene was going to gnaw at me no matter who made the movie... I think that Boyle could have done better. I don't mean that it was a bad movie by any stretch. It just wasn't amazing in the way that Slumdog Millionaire was. Yeah. I know. You can't hit a home run every time up. There's nothing wrong with a solid double every now and again.
Grade: A-
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