Boyle does it again

After multi award winning Slumdog Millionaire, expectations for his next film are undoubtedly sky high, but Danny Boyle is on a rocket mission with his latest film. 127 Hours, releasing on the 7th January, is a biographical thriller starring James Franco as experienced mountaineer, Aron Ralston. Ralston undergoes a climbing adventure in the Utah canyons but suddenly finds himself wedged between rocks and unable to extricate himself. Days later, with no food or water and no prospect of help, he’s forced to ask himself the toughest question – what price is life?

Like Ryan Reynolds in Rodrigo Cortes’s, Buried, 127 Hours is centered around Franco’s character, however unlike with Reynolds, Franco’s performance is overwhelmingly engaging, offering utter intrigue and fulfillment. Franco’s ability to embrace the character’s true emotional and physical state is impressive, each minute of the mountaineer’s distress is an individual and emotional struggle, and we become as desperate as he is for his survival.
A film based on the incredible true story of Aron Ralston, 127 Hours could, quite easily, fall into the documentary or re-construction type genre, which, don’t get me wrong, would still be fascinating, however Boyle, without ‘glamorizing’ or ‘dramatising’ (an infamous Hollywood tendancy) opens the door and invites you into the very mind of the mountaineer, presenting us with one of the most inspirational films of all time.

A film that effortlessly impresses, visually and emotionally and a perfect introduction to 2011, Danny Boyle, you did it again.