127 Hours

Impressions before seeing it
It sounded interesting - I was curious about the survival story, although I think we all know by now that he cuts his arm off. Also, this concludes my Oscars 2010 Best Picture Tour, as the only one I haven't seen is The Kids Are Alright and that one honestly doesn't interest me.

How was it?
This movie reminded me of Cast Away: one lonely and frightened man all alone in the outdoors fighting to survive, though if I had to choose I'd take Tom Hanks's situation over this one any day. And just as Cast Away gave the character a volleyball to talk to so that there would be lines spoken and not just complete silence, 127 Hours gave Aron (Franco) a video camera so that he could record some very depressing vlogs from the chasm in which he was trapped.

I actually really like this type of movie, watching someone figure out how to get out of a terrible confinement. If you don't like that much minimalism it will probably bore you, but I found it completely entertaining watching James Franco sandwiched between two deep rock walls for most of the movie - and anyway, those scenes are broken up by various flashbacks and hallucinations as Aron's health begins to slip. It's easy to see why Franco was nominated for Best Actor here, as he completely nails it, a very good thing because you definitely need a capable actor to sell this one. My favourite moment in his performance is, however, a mere facial expression: the moment when he first gets stuck, the boulder falls and wedges his arm against the wall, there is an incredibly resounding silence, and his face perfectly captures all the necessary emotions, from "Did that insanely unlikely thing just happen?" to "Oh crap, I am royally screwed." A warning to the squeamish: the arm-cutting scene is kind of graphic and disturbing, but then it should be, because amputating your own arm is obviously a traumatic experience. I loved how sound and editing were used to actually convey pain. Right away I understood when he was cutting the nerve, and that was all thanks to the directing. One more thing to praise is that I liked the use of three-way split screen, because it was an opportunity for more imagery of one thing stuck between two things.

Recommendation
As you can tell, I really enjoyed it. You might not if you're bored really easily, but for everyone else it's a fascinating story of survival, willpower, raw humanity, and arm-cutting. I would recommend catching the Blu-ray/DVD, because it contains a much extended alternate ending that shows you several scenes from after Aron came home, which I personally liked better than the actual ending.