[Movie Review] 127 hours is inspiring!

A slightly crazy guy goes mountaineering and gets his hand stuck between a pair of rocks inside a crevice. The movie is about how he comes out of it alive, but only after spending a gut-wrenching 127 hours in a non-salvageable situation. Doesn’t sound like much of a story, eh? But this turned out to be one of the best movies I’ve seen this year.

The last 20 minutes of the movie will stay in your memory forever. These are the moments in the movie where you want to take your eyes away due to gore but you can’t because it is too good to miss. You’ll cringe, you’ll frown, and you’ll keep saying ‘sss’, but you can’t take your eyes away since it is truly inspirational stuff. That’s a tremendous achievement by Danny Boyle. The fact that the movie based on a true story makes you wonder what this guy had to go through in real life.

In a movie where there is only one character on the screen for more than 80% of the movie, the performance of the actor playing that character becomes critical. Remember Tom Hanks from Castaway? But in Castaway, Hanks had the luxury of the whole island. But in 127 hours, James Franco has literally 4sq.ft area to move about with a stuck hand. He delivers marvelously! His change of expressions and body language as he moves from one day to the other is a treat to watch. I immensely enjoyed the sequence where he plays host to himself in a delusional talk show. His performance really deserves an Oscar, unless the Academy chooses not to award the host of the ceremony.

The camera work is terrific. Again, with a limited scope, the kind of innovation that is brought into cinematography is commendable. The dropping-camera-shot when the girl jumps into the water is pure magic.

Rahman’s music fits well. Starts the movie with a bang and ends the movie with a bigger bang. If the final moments of the movie are made memorable, Rahman has a big credit to it.

Danny Boyle has proved his critics that Slumdog Millionaire was not a flash in the pan and that he can attempt challenging stories. In my opinion, this is Boyle’s best.

Watch it!