Review of 127 Hours

If you passed up this movie because you weren't keen on seeing a guy cut off his own arm, you weren't alone. Who would want to watch that?

James Franco plays Aron Ralston, an outdoor kind of guy who takes off early one morning for a bicycle tour of the Utah outback, something he had done dozens of time before; but while wiggling in and out of various crevasses, he steps on a rock wedged between two sheer walls, which gives way, sending both he and the rock tumbling deeper into the crevasse, with the rock becoming wedged again in the narrow below, pinning Aron's hand against the wall in the process, rendering him captive, literally between a rock and a hard place. He very quickly sizes up his predicament, inventories his water, tools, and options, and after several futile attempts to budge the rock with rope leverage and sheer strength, it becomes apparent that the only choice is to sever his own hand with a pocket knife.

The scenes leading up to that decision are flashbacks, dreams, and hallucinations, resulting from lack of sleep, food and water, all of which add to the depth and breadth of this riveting screenplay.

And when the time comes to amputate the hand, the pain and the blood are held to the minimum, without toe-curling cringing on the part of the viewer. We see what has to be done, and we watch without averting our eyes, because we know this is what has to be done to survive.

And so, this is a one man-show, with Franco leading the way through this grueling ordeal, and the camera upon his face at very close quarters, affording one of the longest close-up performances we've ever seen, resulting in the most thorough look at James Franco that his fans could ever ask for.

This movie tackles a difficult subject with a grace and beauty that you cannot foresee until you actually experience this motion picture—one which is well worth your time.

-- Thomas Ormsby