127 Days

Sometimes you see a film or read a book, and there's just not much to say about it. It just is. 127 Days was a bit like this for me. But here goes....

Synopsis
The film recounts the true story of what happened to keen mountaineer Aron Ralston after his arm becomes trapped by a boulder in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. 127 hours is the amount of time he is held hostage by the rock, before breaking his own arm and severing his flesh with a blunt multi-tool. He makes it - but you already knew that.

Em says...
I'm not a fan of non fiction. There's something limiting about how and in what ways I, as the audience, can interact with a true story. Fiction allows me to imagine and interpret in ways that a biography can't. I believe we get more insight into humanity when we take the 'truth' out of the equation. With someone's real story, what I think or have to say about it becomes redundant.

With that in mind, I appreciate that Danny Boyle fought hard to convince Aron that his part should be played by an actor (the awesome James Franco). Boyle understands that the audience can be engaged in a different way - perhaps in a more intense way - if we understand that this is a movie. That these are actors. That this isn't really happening. Smart move. Touching the Void and Into Thin Air were such successful documentary films that I don't think another re enactment doco-style product would have been as successful.

This has the unmistakable look (and soundtrack) of a Boyle film - flipping between frantic ADHD to calming and trance-like. It's a good film: showy, but still humble and low-key (is that possible?). I mean, it looks good and he does some nifty tricks with the camera, but it never feels incongruous. The film-making and use of effects compliment the plot, instead of fighting against it like some other big-budget films.

James Franco was brilliant as Aron - totally believable as this driven loner (is that a mounteneering pre-requisite?). I loved the interplay of the reality with his hallucinations - particularly the torrential downpour and his escape....as a committed 'magic' thinker, I totally related. Or 'related' insofar as anyone can relate having never had to cut their own arm off.

And about that, I felt a duty to watch him cutting his arm off - albeit through splayed fingers. I felt I owed Aron, or the actor playing Aron, that at least I should bear witness. The ear shattering jar of his nerves being snapped - sends a shiver up my spine remembering it.

That it takes these loner types to be dragging their broken body out of a crevasse or cutting their own arm off to realise that life is about sharing the journey with people - your family, your friends - and that they provide the value and worth ... that's perhaps the most interesting question. I mean, it's not like they got on the tram and saw a mother with her baby, and thought, 'oh, yes, family is special'. But I suppose that makes for a pretty boring movie. And probably a pretty boring life if you all ever did was get on and off trams.

Verdict
Simple story dynamically told.