FILM REVIEW 127 Hours

Between a rock and a hard place


Cinema
Daniel Carey

IN the 1987 comedy horror movie ‘Evil Dead II’, Ash (Bruce Campbell) finds himself attacked by his right hand, which has become possessed. He eventually cuts it off with a chainsaw, which then replaces the hand itself.
If that sounds messy, it is. But it’s also hilarious. Which is not a word that springs to mind about Aron Ralston’s decision to hack off his right arm after getting it trapped under a boulder in Utah in 2003. That remarkable event was followed by a book, and has now inspired a film, ‘127 Hours’.
Extraordinary though it was, the raw material (a man who spent over four days trapped down a canyon) doesn’t sound like it would lend itself to something suitable for the cinema. So fair dues to director Danny Boyle and star James Franco for making it work.
As the action begins, engineer Aron (the outstanding Franco) is heading off on a thrill-seeking weekend across spectacular countryside. He helps a pair of less-experienced adventurers (played by Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) find their way, but gets stuck soon after they go their separate ways.
The trick from there is to make his lack of mobility work on screen. Boyle deploys a throbbing soundtrack and variety of imaginative camera angles. There are flashbacks and fantasy sequences, but the man behind ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ resists the temptation to cut away from the hole for long periods.
Aron has access to a bag, including a video camera (to which he gives occasionally updates), headphones, a little bit of food, a depleting amount of water, a digital camera and a blunt pen-knife – but no phone. While the picture focuses on the fact that he hasn’t told anyone where he’s going, a  mobile would, of course, have solved the problem. His sister’s words (“Call mom, please, because she worries”) have rarely sounded so grimly appropriate.
Aron appears to go through his own version of the famous five stages of grief. He chips away at the rock with his “cheap, made in China multi-tool” to no avail. He grows used to a raven flying overhead at a certain time every morning, and becomes agitated when the bird doesn’t appear. He learns to savour the 15 minutes of sunlight his foot can bask in.



He records messages for his family and remembers playing hide-and-seek as a child. He reflects with regret on calls left unanswered. He regrets the bad ending to a previous relationship (with Clémence Poésy, who played Chloë in Martin McDonagh’s ‘In Bruges’).
There are moments of pathos mixed with black comedy (one sequence in which Aron plays the role of a radio-show caller reflecting on the hopelessness of his plight is both funny and sad). When his water runs out, he drinks his own urine (offering a rare opportunity for a literal use of the phrase “It’s like a bag of piss”).
As for THAT scene? Well, I must confess I couldn’t watch Aron do the deed. Elsewhere in the cinema, people recoiled  in their seats (I know this because it was easier to watch them than keep my eyes on the screen). And a ‘cover your eyes for a second’ warning (the kind of thing your older sister might have have told you while watching the Indiana Jones flicks) doesn’t quite do the trick. From looking at my watch (again, anywhere but the screen!), I can confirm that it took a few short minutes – it just FELT like hours. Still, the film – if not, for the squeamish among us, the climactic scene – is well worth watching.

Rating 7 out of 10