(And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to... James Franco)
CAST: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Burton, Treat Williams.
DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
NOTE: Minimal SPOILERS and maximum emotional drainage - straight ahead….
They say that when you’re in grave danger, time slows to a crawl. They say when you’re faced with your own mortality, your life flashes before your own eyes. And you remember exactly what you were doing, thinking, feeling, at the time. It must be akin to “flash memory,” a psychology term that describes our ability to remember details vividly when they’re tied in to significant - or significantly traumatic - experiences.
The thing is, sometimes you don’t realize you’re in mortal danger until it’s too late. I remember snorkeling in the Indian Ocean back in 2001, tracking a Grey Reef shark about five feet long cruising along the reef flat a mere ten feet below me. Suddenly, the shark started swimming erratically in a series of figure 8’s, and scrunching up its body as if being harpooned from behind. Those of you who know your sharks also know what the Grey Reef shark was doing: he was sending me a message that basically went, “Get the hell away from me right now. Or I will bite you. Hard.”
The Grey Reef shark is the only species of shark that extends this courtesy, known as a “threat pattern” or a “threat display.” Needless to say, I took him up on it and swam as fast as I could back to the shallows. My snorkeling buddies were still struggling with their equipment, and couldn’t figure out why I shot out of the water like a flying fish. I remember vividly how exposed my body was to the shark below as I tried to make it back to the beach in one piece. Fortunately, Mr. Grey Reef appreciated my cooperative quick departure and must have swam off to the reef drop-off.
They also say that when you’re life is on the line, you can grow superhuman strength that you didn’t know you had. I know that for a fact. When I was living in Northern Japan in the late 90‘s, I decided to go on a road trip by myself into the mountain range near my town. It was a cold February day, and no one of the other Yanks wanted to leave the warm confines of the building I lived in. Needing to get out like any nature freak, I went on my own. Big mistake.
Everything was fine until I reached a part of the mountains where it was clear by the tracks in the road that all the other cars had turned and gone back down. Like an idiot, I kept on driving ahead, the tires of my car cutting through the virgin snow. The way I saw it, I was going where all the other drivers had feared to go. Or were just too smart to. Stupid me. At any rate, the last village (which was nothing more than a collection of shacks in the snow) was about 10 miles behind me. By then it was about 4:30 PM. And it gets dark early in February in Northern Japan.
Long story short, my car wound up in a ditch when it skidded during an upward curve in the road. At that moment, I realized six things: (1) since it was a big range, no one back home knew exactly where I was; (2) it was starting to get dark; (3) it was starting to snow harder; (4) I was more than ten miles away from the closest thing that passed for civilization; and (5) unless I managed to get the car out of the ditch, I was (6) fucked.
Let’s just say that, faced with the prospect of freezing to death in the dark mountains or becoming the victim of a Japanese version of DELIVERANCE, I managed to get that car out of that steep ditch on my own. And I was in utter pain - arm, legs, back, ass, everything - for at least two weeks. But it was a small price to pay for survival. Bottom line: when you’re truly scared, there’s no telling what you can do.
In addition to my Grey Reef shark near-attack and Japanese Road Trip near-nightmare, our latest review confirms the phenomena of fear-induced flash memory, life recall, and superhuman strength. 127 HOURS chronicles the harrowing real-life saga of Aron Ralston, a outdoor enthusiast/adventurer who had much, much, much more harrowing encounter with Mother Nature while hiking in the Blue John Canyon of Utah in 2003. So harrowing was this encounter, it makes my run-ins with the shark and the mountains look like a quiet afternoon at Disneyland.
Like me, though, Ralston didn’t realize he was in danger until it was too late. Ralston slipped, fell, and got his right arms pinned under a boulder. For the next five days, Ralston did everything he could think of to free himself: trying to dislodge the boulder with his weight, the desperately chipping away at the boulder with a dull utility blade, then even more desperately fashioning a pulley of sorts from some ropes in a last-ditch effort.
Needless to say, none of these attempts worked. And Ralston was forced to do the unthinkable…
Most of you know what Ralston had to do with that dull utility knife in order to survive, as widely reported by the media after his brave escape in 2003: he severed his own right arm. What you probably don’t know (unless you read the book he wrote based on his experience, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”) is what happened up until that point, like the tricks of the mind and eye that plagued him. Dehydrated and hallucinating, he saw friends and family that weren’t there, his life flashing before his eyes. He dreamt an escape, only to realize it was a dream. And, above all, he realized how cavalier he was with a lot of folks. Folks he should have cherished a little more. In the end, it was this desire to see his loved ones again that gave Ralston the strength and courage to do what he had to. Especially a hallucination (premonition?) of his future son…
In 127 HOURS, the adaptation of “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” Ralston is played by James Franco. And let me just say that if you were never a fan of Franco’s before, you will be after this. I have to be careful not to give away too much, because much of 127 HOURS emotional power lies in the unexpected and the unpredictability of Franco‘s performance. Suffice it to say, you will find yourself alternately wrapped up in Ralston’s plight, and constantly pulling out of it to remind yourself you’re safe and sound in your movie theater seat and not actually suffering with him. If that’s not a mark of great film - and a great performance - I don’t know what is.
One thing I know for certain: James Franco may not win the Academy Award for Best Actor this year for being too young or too handsome or too willing to host the show or too whatever, but if Awards were being handed out for sheer bravura acting and not the extravagant party favor for veterans (let’s face it: Colin Firth’s getting it for THE KING’S SPEECH) it sometimes is, there’s no question who would get it this year.
And he’ll be the guy standing right next to Anne Hathaway onstage next February.
BUT, EVEN MORE SERIOUSLY: As a friend whom we will call “Liam Neeson,” because of his resemblance to the Irish actor, said to me today: “Most people probably won’t go to see 127 HOURS because [they don’t want to see a guy cutting off his arm] and that’s a shame because they would be missing out on quite an experience.”
I couldn’t have said it better. “Liam” hit the nail on the head with that statement. Sadly, he is probably very right: most people will probably think twice about seeing this film because of the reports of people fainting during “that scene.” I’ll be honest and say that I had to walk out of the theater the first time I saw 127 HOURS and that unnerving part came around. However, it wasn’t the gore that sent me scurrying out for a few minutes. What bothered me was seeing a character I had made a substantial emotional investment in having to suffer in such an unimaginable way. His pain was mine. Had Ralston been played by a less talented actor than James Franco, the character might have come across less effectively - and his plight, far less affectingly.
As “Liam” said, if you skip this film, you will miss out on the most emotionally rewarding cinematic experience of this year. You’ll miss out on James Franco’s deeply compelling performance. You’ll miss out on director Danny Boyle’s (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, TRAINSPOTTING) painterly touch as a director. You’ll miss out on being reminded that the human spirit has the capacity to triumph over the most seemingly-insurmountable of obstacles. You’ll miss out on a story that is all the more powerful because it wasn’t invented by some hack screenwriter, but lived and written by an ordinary man who had to do the extraordinary to survive.
In other words, just like I mentioned in my review of GLADIATOR, there are some movies that remind us why we go to movies: to feel, experience, and be transformed by emotion. 127 HOURS is another one of those films. It is raw, disturbing, uplifting, devastating, and - ultimately - illuminating. It leaves you just a little bit different than when you first went into the theater.
And if that’s not the mark of great film - and a great performance - I don’t know what is.
I dedicate this review to Aron Ralston’s courage and strength, and to Danny Boyle and James Franco’s talents…
