After seeing an episode of I Shouldn’t Be Alive a few years ago that showed the story of Aron Ralston, the adventure seeker who got his arm pinned between a boulder and a rock wall and managed to survive, I didn’t know if there was a need for a full-length feature film. I figured that the only way that Danny Boyle’s (Slumdog Millionaire, Yesterday)127 Hours would be able to affect me was if there was a masterful lead acting performance, some stylish directing, or a combination of the two. Fortunately, that was precisely what happened.

By now, everybody knows the story of Ralston, the man who spent over five days trapped in a cavern before cutting his arm off with a cheap, dull knife. Ralston has written a book, featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and talked about his trials and tribulations in other media venues. His story of perseverance, staying positive, and doing whatever it takes not to lose it when all else seems completely hopeless has inspired millions and simultaneously brought tears to their eyes. While even thinking about Aron’s situation is daunting to most of us, he endured. He endured the pain, the dehydration, the fatigue, and, worst of all, the notion that there was no way that he was going to be found and no way he was going to be able to free his arm from the boulder. During those 127 Hours, Aron discovered who he was and what things he needed to change to be the person he wanted to be.

James Franco (Milk, Spider-Man) gives the performance of his young career. Franco, already an established actor at the age of 32, likely will earn his first Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as Aron. His portrayal of Aron effectively shows Aron as a carefree, and sometimes careless, lover of life and adventure man within the first twenty minutes of the movie. Then Franco transforms his character to show how this same man tries to deal with the most physically and emotionally dire of a situation.

While Franco nailed the role of Aron, 127 Hours would not have been such a rewarding experience without Boyle’s direction. Boyle unconventionally incorporates a soundtrack into this movie that might initially feel weird. Still, as you walk away from the film, you can’t imagine it any other way.

What I took away most from this movie was that Aron never once wondered why this horrible event was happening to him. Though he was scared, disbelieved, and downright angry at finding himself in his situation, he never once wondered, “Why me?” Instead, as he was reevaluating his life and the circumstances that led him to where he was, he said, “Of course me.” He never once blamed anyone else. He understood that he was responsible for his predicament by shutting people out of his life, not being there for others when they needed him to be, and not even letting another person know where he was going despite the potential danger.

Ironically, the movie Buried, which stars Ryan Reynolds as a man buried underground in a coffin, was released about a month before 127 Hours. Buried, while intriguing at the time, was even spotlighted by Entertainment Weekly as one of their featured films to see before the end of the year, while 127 Hours received just a tiny little blurb. While these two movies feature, for the most part, identical predicaments, 127 Hours has earned the Oscar buzz, while Buried has mostly been forgettable. It might be because 127 Hours is a true story, while Buried is not, and also has a better lead actor and a better director. It is uncertain how Buried might have done had it been released a year earlier, but it has not measured up against 127 Hours either with the critics or at the box office.

Plot 10/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 10/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
93.5%

If a movie is a real story rather than just based on or inspired by actual events, and it holds the audience’s attention while earning critical praise, it’s hard not to give the plot a 10. While it is pretty much just you and James Franco for 90 minutes, there are enough flashbacks to see how his relationships with his parents, his sister, and a former girlfriend helped shape Aron into the person he became. The incorporation of a soundtrack in this movie is masterful.