127 Hours - That's more than 5 days!

Not since 'Touching the Void' has a dramatisation of real-life adventuring sounded so incredible. '127 Hours' is the true story of Aron (imdb spelling) Ralston - played by James Franco - and his incredible 127 hour long ordeal being trapped out in the desert-like conditions of the western plains of the USA. Aron is what we might call a 'free spirit'. We see him setting out by himself on his bike into the great dry rocky plains setting himself a target time to beat, hiking off into the great unknown and showing a pair of female travellers a 'short cut' that involves a death-defying fall into an underground lake - not the kind of guy who pays much attention to health and safety. He's the sort of person you're likely to meet eventually if you spend any length of time travelling away from major tourist traps.

Eventually Aron's bravery gets the better of him when he stumbles into a narrow ravine and gets his arm trapped under a large rock. Everything he tries to do to move the rock fails; he cannot lift, chip away at or budge it at all. The film now provides a claustrophobic view into the terror, hopelessness and despair of Aron's captivity in this ravine - where sunshine comes for only 15 minutes each morning. We see his initial incredulity at being trapped by the natural world he so loves, then his practical organisation of all his equipment, food and water, before finally his slow slide into madness as he looses hope for his survival. Aron's eventual escape (this is not a spoiler - since it's information that was put around quite liberally when the film came out) is accomplished by cutting off his own arm. The scene in which this happens is very distressing, and happens after a trippy dream sequence that paints Aron's experiences as a spiritual journey in which he re-assess his own life.

This is a Danny Boyle film, which means that there's plenty of frantic camera work with running closeups and cameras being put in weird places. Inside James Franco's arm being the oddest camera position with the bottom of his water bottle a close second.

My understanding is that the events pictured in the film are very close to what happened to Aron in real life. If this really is the case then he obviously underwent some kind of revelatory experience while trapped under that rock. He starts out blaming the natural world for his predicament, but then slowly realises that his own stupidity in underestimating nature has led him to dig his own grave. Once he accepts blame on to himself he finally realises that it is not this rock trapping him, but his arm. Only then is he able to take the ultimate step and relieve himself of his own limb.

Despite knowing exactly what's going to happen right from the very start (or perhaps because of it), '127 Hours' is terrifying in putting a microscope up to a nightmare scenario. Part thriller, part spiritual awakening - it's an excellent film.