Director: Danny Boyle
Year Released: 2010
Rating: 3.0
Astounding - if over-directed/-edited/-assembled - recreation of the events in Utah that led adventurous (and a little crazy) outdoorsman Aron Ralston (played here by one-man-show James Franco) to remove his own right forearm with a blunt tool when a boulder fell on it and trapped him in a ravine for several days without food or the possibility of assistance. I find this sort-of Man versus Wild picture - which is a lot like the amazing Touching the Void in terms of theme - to be a wonderful testament to the power of human resiliency and durability (in the face of imminent death). It's hard to call what Franco does a performance, since Boyle (with loyal cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle) shoots from this angle or that, with this camera or that - it's just too carefully (and frantically) assembled - but Franco does embody Reckless Abandon and Thoughtless Bravado just fine: it isn't just any man that could hang in there for days, not 'lose it,' still record personal thoughts on a video camcorder and repel off a cliff with one arm while basically in the process of dying. Now if only it didn't look like Requiem for a Dream all the time or some frenetic music video....
