Style Vs Content

The film 127 Hours by Danny Boyle is composed of two major elements, style and acting. In previous films Boyle has proved his ability to take oddball scripts and make them compelling to diverse audiences as in the case of 28 Days Later. This film however is a 90 minute experiment of style over content. Danny Boyle has done well with a script which lacks character development and plot .

A majority of movies have been based on previously published material since the dawn of popular film. This film based on the real life memoir Between a Rock and a Hard Place makes its audience wonder why it needed to be told in movie form? In real life the character played by James Franco was Aron Ralston. Ralston was climbing in the mountains of Utah and his arm became trapped between a boudler and a canyon. He was trapped for four days with barely any water or food, assuming he would die he videotaped his farewells until he was finally able to cut off his own arm with a pocketknife. No one can doubt that those events are both harrowing and compelling but is it enough to sustain an entire feature film?

Boyle pads at least 35 minutes of his film with stylized filler. This isn't to say that this is bad filler. There are some great techniques being used here. The split screen method is used throughout this movie and it looks great. The shots of the natural surroundings and underground lakes are really vivid and beautiful too. Though there seems to be a lot of unneccessary dream sequences full of teenage partying and underdeveloped character background that despite the use of color and music, don't really do much for the film. It also seems that the lack of content is made up for with obvious symbolism such as kitschy 70's song paired with a vintage soda commercial: we get it, he's thirsty and he isn't going to give up. Every audience member knows what this movie is about and all the filler is just stalling the inevitable moment, when is he going to cut his arm off? How gross is it going to be? It's clear that the director knew nobody cared about this guy's personal life, just the rubbernecking moment where he cuts his own arm off so why bother developing the rest?

James Franco's acting range is simply not strong enough to pull this kind of story off. For a film that spends so much time focused on his face, his expressions never change, only the makeup shows his fatigue. Franco also never physically addresses the fact that his hand is in a momentus amount of pain, his choices lead the viewer to think that his trapped appendage is nothing more than a pesky piece of equipment. Several times he calls out for help and yet it never really affects the audience. The script spends so much time developing the character's video diary and yet it just seems like Franco's youtube blog. Not a single moment of this film elicits the feeling that Franco's choices are genuine, therefore be prepared to bring your own sense of horror to this realistic nightmare.