127 Hours Review (4.5/5)

If there's one thing that 127 Hours achieves magnificently, it's setting a superb foundation and standard for every film to come this year, differentiating itself from every flick before it and laden with a surprisingly bitter-sweet tone considering it comes from the man who gave us feel-good summer flick Slumdog Millionaire. 127 Hours revolves around the true story of Aaron Ralston (James Franco), a climber who fell into the Blue John Canyon and trapped his arm, leaving him unable to escape for five whole days- and even when he did gain his freedom, it came at a cost (one which escalates the movie into 15 territory, the only scene to do so). Franco is therefore left to basically lead the story one-handed, but anyone who has seen him before in the Spider-Man trilogy should know that he's more than capable of holding his own, and this has to be his absolute finest hour (don't let his relatively small list of roles deceive you- Franco has class not found in many actors nowadays!), portraying Ralston with sincerity and supreme realism, so much so that we can easily picture the real-life explorer in the same situation. Evidently, the only place where 127 Hours falters is in its flash-backs, starring cardboard cut-out characters like predictable ex-s and relatives only really serving to add some depth and background to the main plot more for understanding of how the events leading to Ralston's fall came about than actual enjoyment of the flick. If it weren't for this dire sense of familiarity common to so many other films and as we know easily avoidable, 127 Hours would already be a contender for the best film of the year. As it is, it's still a great benchmark for everything to come in the next twelve months, and leaves a lot to live up to in 2011!