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127 Hours Review

            An experienced rock climber going out for a climb in the canyons.  What could possibly go wrong? Everything.  This is the film 127 Hours.
            Colston, goes climbing, meeting some girls, lost in the park and helps them get back on track.  He gets them on the right path where they need to go, and returns to his own excursions.  He begins to descend a small canyon wall down into the crevice and grabs a boulder, slipping and crushing his hand up against the rock wall.  He is totally alone.  Colston attempts many ways to free his arm by digging at it with a knife, building a pulley system with his equipment to try and move the boulder, eventually leading to the amputation of his own arm
            The film not only delves into the aspect of  Colston trying to free himself  and stay alive, but we as the audience see who he is a person.  Colston thinks about his life and past, how he has let the woman he loved go, how he has not given his parents the love and attention they deserve.  He reflects on it all, coming to the sense, this boulder, this event, has been waiting for him his whole life.  We see his feeling and memories through flashbacks and through his camera, which he uses for daily logs.  The camera represents his last message, if she should die in the canyon.  He however is not all sad and agony all the time, otherwise it would be an emo drama.  Colston has a talk show with himelf and his camera when he is bored one day in the canyon and it takes away for a moment and lets us have a breathe of fresh air during his confinement to the canyon.
            James Franco gives an Oscar worthy performance, making the audience laugh and cry through his feelings of pain, agony, and regrets in hislife.  A film that requires a great solo performance to work, like Tom Hanks in Castaway, is necessary for the film to work.  Franco delivers, and makes us believe him at every turn of the story.
            Director Danny Boyle, whose latest film was Slumdog Millionaire, weaves a film with a simple premise, to a film with sustaining and prolonging suspense, not knowing what Colston will do next to try and stay alive.  Boyle creates the sense of Colston’s quick paced life with fantastic camera work and showing us very soon in the film that Colston has been all alone in life for some time.
            127 Hours is in limited release, but a film that is definitely worth your time.  Franco’s performance and Boyle’s direction makes 127 Hours one of the years must see pictures.

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