127 Hours

True achievement in filmmaking comes when you just can't imagine a movie being made any way other than what it was. 127 Hours is one of a few films this year that can make such a claim.

I would not go as far as saying that Boyle did the impossible by making a film about a man stuck in one spot for nearly the entire time. Yes it might seem static in terms of geography and character population but the dynamic of a man fighting for survival is powerful. There are numerous factors at play here. It's not as if Aaron Ralston simply sat there and did nothing for the entire time. This story is like a war for it's made up of individual battles each with its own level of intensity. One particularly strenuous moment has Aaron (James Franco) attempting to retrieve the knife he has dropped a few feet below him.

Boyle makes the movie a very subjective experience. Every sensation that this character experiences can be felt in the audience. He doesn't just photograph Aaron trying to get the last drop of water out of his bottle. He sticks the camera in the bottle and shows us Aaron's tongue emerging from a chasm in need of nourishment, flailing for the last possible drop.

The structure is appropriate and utilizes flashbacks carefully. A couple of the scenes that we see aren't seen in any context nor do we ever find out the context. All we see is what we need to see to know how Aaron is feeling. Some moments are fused with quirky and yet heart-breaking humor that enhances the dramatic value of the movie. Sure, eventually an arm gets cut off, but to walk away from this movie with that in the forefront of your mind is to miss the entire point.

Boyle's direction out does that of his Oscar-winning work in Slumdog Millionaire by celebrating one man's desire to live and making a movie filled with life itself. Unfortunately, it seems the more limited scope of this project will prevent it from getting the same sort of deserved attention.