127 Hours (2010), Danny Boyle
3/5
While this is an amazing story of human strength and survival I don't think director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting) did justice with bringing it to life. The beginning credit sequence is quite irritating, both the choice of music and the use of split screen. The performances are good, but the film suffers through having basically a solo performance by James Franco. Although the use of flashes of imagery are used well, the film is slow and drags at times. Despite this at it is also intense, moving, incredibly harsh and realistic. The narrative developed is great and James Franco excellently portrays the personal psychological journey and thankfully the film doesn't revert to cheap tactics like voice over. The story is grim and moments are graphic and intense, but no where near as much as I feel like as was hyped up around the film on release. Some stunning imagery, but it is the true story and performances that are great. The cinematography style isn't that interesting with lots of use of split screens and digital video diary style. Overall better than expected this is a personal story of strength and endurance not only physically, but mentally and nicely employs this as a coming of age maturing character drama. However, I think I would have preferred a documentary style rather than film dramatisation, more like Touching the Void which I feel was far superior in generating impact.
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