MyRating: YYYY 1/2Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Clémence Poésy
MPAA: Rated R for language and some disturbing violent content/bloody images
A remarkable true story about a mountain climber Aron Ralston, who has to face a near death experience in one of his hiking adventure in April 2003, based on his autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place (published in 2004). Aron (James Franco) is trapped alone in the isolated Blue John Canyon in the Utah desert, after he is falling together with a dislodged boulder, which unfortunately crushes his right forearm and pins it against the canyon wall. Possessing high surviving skills and having lots of experiences in the open nature, Aron uses what he has with him in order to stay alive, including his climbing tools, a bottle of limited water inside, and a dull pocket knife. And he tries to survive the next five days while trying to figure out how to free himself from the boulder and out of the canyon. But when his time runs out, Aron has to do the unbelievable thing in order to save his life.
This is an incredible and 'painful' story that was being captured amazingly by the British director Danny Boyle, the man behind Slumdog Millionaire (2008), that won 8 Academy Awards in 2009. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Beaufoy that was almost all factually accurate and as near authentic as the real event. The sinematography of the Utah desert and canyons was breathtakingly beautiful. The music score by A.R. Rahman was powerful, energetic, and haunting at times, bringing you right into the heart of the wild desert. The smart choice of showing close-up shots of Aron's hand before the event happened, such as when his hand searching around to grab something in the shelf at the beginning of the movie, or when his hand 'lively' touching and feeling the canyon wall, it actually has pre-warned us that something bad will happen to his hand. And when it finally happened, you knew that the 'honeymoon' was over, and it was time for eerie moments.
James Franco gave a dazzling performance in this one-man show attraction. Except in the beginning of the movie where he meets with two other adventurer girls (Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn) and the other people at the end, there was nobody else except Franco, the open nature, and the rock. He convincingly portrayed the wild and free spirit of Aron Ralston, as we can see how he trully loves the mountain climbing, fearless, full of energy, and full of positive hopes. Falling from a bicycle, but still smiled happily and took a picture of his silly face. Trapped miserably in the canyon, but still able to joke with himself in front of his handycam by pretending to be the radio show host. And as he struggled to free himself from his unfortunate situation, even when he started to lose hopes, we can see how this man was unwilling to let the fate defeated him, not with the extreme decision that he took finally, in order to extricate himself from the rock. It needs more than bravery to do such a thing. And all this was played effectively and full of emotion by Franco. The movie was fortunate to get the right cast, and Franco was lucky to get the perfect role of his career. Got nominated by the Academy Awards is one big deal, your career will never be the same again, whether you win it or not, especially for a young and talented actor like James Franco.
Even though only alone in the canyon, the movie did not limited itself with Aron in that narrow crack, but bounced back and forth through Aron's mind, beyond the space and time, whether through his memories, imaginations or hallucinations. By recalling back to the time when he was still a child and how his father taught him to love the outdoor activities, remembering the good old times that he spent with his ex-girlfriend and the things that he desired to do with her, up to imagining himself drinking a bottle of cold drink in a wild party. All became like surreal pictures and dreams in his delusion and exhausted mind.
The final scene when Aron tried to, once and for all, free himself from the rock was a pretty painfully hard scene to watch, if you get the guts to continue watching it at the first place. It terrors you with the bloody sight and daunting sounds, that will make you wish it to finish soon. It was definitely not a scene for the faint-hearted.
As Aron Ralston said to himself in the movie, "You know, I've been thinking. Everything is... just comes together. It's me. I chose this. I chose all this. This rock... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. It's entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface." That was a very thoughtful thought of a dying man. And it's true, everything that we do in our entire life is leading us to something, good or bad, that only God knows what it is. So, it's not merely about fate that we can't control, but it's about how we face it when it comes, because everybody has a big rock in the way of his life. The question is, whether you want to die with the rock, or to break free from it? It's your choice. (MJ)
