My Review: 127 Hours

Wowsers! I wasn't sure if I would like a movie about about a guy trapped under a rock, but it was fantastic! There wasn't a single boring part, and I was completely drawn in the whole time. I was originally going to take notes on this movie for one of my film classes, but there was no way that was happening because I was completely into the story. 127 Hours is about a guy named Aron Ralston who, while canyoneering, ends up with his arm trapped under a rock. While an entire film about this might not sound that intriguing, Danny Boyle does an excellent job with it. For starters, casting James Franco was brilliant. Not only does he give an amazing performance in this movie, but I could probably watch an hour an a half of him just brushing his teeth or combing his hair or something like that. Yeah...he's a good looking dude. I loved watching all of his video diary scenes when he is talking to his parents, and when he starts to lose it a bit. Also, you really get the feeling of claustrophobia in this movie. A lot of it is handheld, documentary style camera work, so you get a sense of the realism with both that and the fact that it is based on a true story. Movies like this get to me because it gets me thinking about what I would do in a situation like that. Would I drink my own urine? Would I have the courage to cut my arm off to escape? Well, for starters, I'm not really an outdoorsy person, so I wouldn't be there to begin with. I mean, the part in the beginning when Aron and the three girls fall down into the water freaked me out, so I wouldn't want to go climbing around all those big rocks. Anyways, I don't really know if I would be able to do the things that Aron did to survive. I'd like to think that I would, but the thought of cutting of my arm with a really small, dull blade just freaks me out. I can sort of understand how people could have fainted during the amputation scene. It wasn't as bad as I was led to believe it was, but it was a bloody mess, and a bit of a shocker to see. What's amazing is that apparently they did that whole scene in one take. Whoever made that fake arm did an amazing job too because it looked so real. My rating: 9/10