127 Hours

127 Hours is the tale of a man unafraid who gets himself in a frightening situation. He is Aron Ralston, a lover of the outdoors. In the opening sequence (one of the best ever) he fancifully plays with danger and goes diving with two girls. On his own once more, he falls into a crevice. A massive rock has fallen with him and pinned his arm to the side of the crevice. He is stuck. 127 Hours chronicles his time there, his attempts to get out and finally his escape by cutting his own arm off with a dull knife. This is no spoiler, for by the title it is clear that he makes it out. In his time in the crevice, Ralston (played in what will probably win the Oscar by James Franco of Pineapple Express) thinks about the people outside of his hell. He thinks of all the things back home that he would love to return to, old memories and what he could be doing instead. His escape is miraculous. The pain and self-convincing is also astounding. He is a very lucky man. But, that is really just what this movie is about. How it is about, makes the film great. It is shot beautifully, never boring for even a moment (people were carried out on stretchers at Telluride Film Festival who could not bear the intensity), and extremely moving. Franco's best line in the whole movie is about how it is himself who made the choices to put himself in every single situation in his life. How he is ultimately responsible. The director of 127 Hours, Danny Boyle, deserves the Oscar for this movie. But only for direction, for the best film of the year is a different film. But Boyle has masterfully directed this movie, and filmed the un-filmable. It is by far his best film. It surpasses the popular Slumdog Millionaire and the trippy cult classic: Trainspotting. 127 Hours is a great achievement: entertaining, unpretentious, and moving.
127 Hours: ★★★★