Brain Candy

127 Hours Passed in 127 Seconds


127 Hours is another brilliant movie that passed me by because it wasn't in theaters until after it had been nominated. I had heard about it before it was released, and I was, to say the least, extremely excited to see it. Being trapped somewhere, hopeless and desperate is something that is something of a nightmare to me. A truly great movie has two things: character development and mental connection. Good movies might have just one, like Die Hard (who doesn't want to be a terrorist kicker-asser?), but to be great you have to have both. That's something that 127 Hours accomplishes, seemingly, without effort.

From the get-go, the movie faces a massive challenge, and that challenge is holding your interest. The ending is well-known (though if you don't know it, I won't say it here), and that's something I kept in mind going in. The middle is often the most difficult part of a story to tell, but 127 Hours is all middle. It wastes no time setting up the situation, but the opening is extremely different than you might expect, which is a great move by the director to grab your attention. He then meets two girls in his travels, and his interaction with these two ladies sets up his personality and shows you how he is in the moment. Fun-loving, laid-back, easygoing and easy to get along with, but earlier scenarios set up that he is afraid of commitment and closed-off. In fifteen minutes, we have a solid ground for the middle.

And then it gets to the meat. He falls into a hole, his arm is trapped in a rock. At first, the movie concentrates on the hopelessness and isolation. As he screams for help, the camera zooms out to show the landscape: a barren, desolate valley, with not a single soul around. The rest of the movie centers on his emotional revelations, and his realization of why he is the way he is.

I am not an easy man to make cry, but every single twist of fate, every single turn of the tables, every little event and glimmer or hope and condemnation had an effect on me. There isn't an event in this movie that is wasted. If not for my girlfriend being beside me, there would have been two separate occasions where I would have cried: once out of pure happiness for the guy, and once out of sadness, during his revelations. In no small part, this is thanks to James Franco's absolutely stunning performance. He swings from happy-go-lucky cool guy to brink-of-insanity and then comes around for a side of soul-searching. He cycles through so many realistic emotions that it's hard not to become mentally invested in him.

In closing, all I have to say is that more happens in 127 Hours, a movie all about someone trapped in a crack in the earth, than in any movie I can think of. The emotional journey that James Franco takes us through is, all at once, touching and revolting. Sometimes, 127 Hours is painful to watch, but I admire a movie that isn't afraid to make you cringe. This is a movie that, amidst the bland action movies, is like a splash of cold water to the face. It jerks you out of a trance, grabs you by the collar and pulls you through a riveting and beautiful tale of human perseverance. You will walk out of 127 Hours with a new appreciation for your life and those around you.