Like Natalie Portman, James Franco had to do a little soul searching for this part. What a performance, unbelievable. The film lasted 1,5 hour and less than 10 actors were in it.
Aron Ralston, an arrogant guy who thinks he's the best in everything he does, goes mountainbiking in the Blue John Canyon in Utah. He doesn't tell anyone he's going because he doesn't feel he needs to and he does it all the time. In the Blue John Canyon he meets two girls. They chat, he leads them the way and they swim in a giant pool in the craves. After they parted, he walks around in the ravines and falls. A giant rock lands on his arm and his arm is stuck between the rock and the ravine. He tries everything to free his arm from the rock, but it seems impossible. And the first minutes of his 127 hours' stay have entered.
You can imagine, being stuck in a cave, with a bleeding arm and no one at a distance of 10 kilometres, isn't what you call a lark. With little food, little water and no accessibility of your phone or anything (doubt he even brought one, though he did bring a video- and photocamera) Aron goes to extremes. He even drinks his own urine and after a while he even tries to cut his own arm.
Amazing how this movie doesn't bore in a minute, though there are times you don't see more than James Franco doing effort to get loose. A few flashbacks okay, a few hallucinations. We come to know Aron is a loner, he had a wonderful girlfriend (the French Clémence Poésy, known for her part in Gossip Girl and Harry Potter) but he can't open himself up. The hallucinations are quite scary actually, there's one time Aron sees a giant Scooby Doo. You may think that's hilarious but believe me, it's not.
When he has given up all hope and his body is starting to behave very weird (not surprising if you drink nothing but your own piss and if you have nothing to eat for 5 days) he decides to break his own arm. Twice. And if this isn't bad enough, he cutts his arm off. It's one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen, including Saw and that kind of crap. I was a little nauseous ;)
The end was actually a bit of a disappointment. If you compare the story to for example 'Into the Wild', the last one is just phenomenal. The end though, '127 hours' has more action and generally less long-winded as 'Into the Wild'.
But they couldn't change the plot because the story really happened.
Of course one of the main reasons I had seen this movie is the fact that James Franco was in it. I know, shameful, for a film faddist as I claim to be. But this guy is just amazing. He's charming, funny, really clever (he's an artist, poet, writer, student and actor) and he looks like James Dean. Marvelous, isn't it?
Anyway, if you can handle a bit of blood and a bit of breaking bones (you can if you have seen 'Black Swan') see this movie. If you can't handle it, don't go, cause I guarantee you're going home nauseous.
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