All in all, it's just a great looking high-definition film. There was also clearly no need to tinker in post-production, thanks to the use of Boyle's favourite Silicon Imaging SI-2K digital cameras, and the director's attention to detail and commitment to producing beautiful cinematography alongside Anthony Dod Mantle, so we don't get any tell-tale signs of manipulation. The transfer matches, and emphasises the intensity of the film: textures and detail are so nailed on, and colours so vivid and bursting with warmth that every sense is encouraged to over-act a little: in essence, this is how a hyperbolic aesthetic approach can work perfectly, even in a limited, mostly realist context. Danny Boyle's aesthetic was already beautifully crafted, and to see it here in high-definition with such a phenomenal sense of texture and depth marks a high-point for this triumphant release from Fox Searchlight.
#Aron ralston video diary movie
In the simplest terms, 127 Hours is one of the best films of last year: rightly nominated for Oscar recognition (though also rightly overlooked in my opinion), it is a visually stunning, deeply engaging and power movie that features an outstanding central performance and the perfect marriage of accomplished cinematography and brilliant, precisely crafted audio. The performance is so strong that we can even forgive Boyle's occasionally over-the-top camera flourishes and tricks as inconsequential to the success of the story.
#Aron ralston video diary skin
Franco gets under the skin of the character, and has obviously spent a lot of time working with the real-life Ralston, but he makes the character a universally appealing one, whose situation is all the more engrossing for that. His grief and resolve are equally believable, and the power is mostly in his ability to invite the audience to feel as he feels - even if his character is nothing like us - so that the downright horror of the task he chooses and undertakes lands with an almighty jarring punch. The entire endeavour hinges of course on James Franco's performance - easily his career best - which is both dazzling to watch as a voyeur, but also completely engaging on a human level. Considering the subject matter, and the temptation to go for a straight situational horror, that is no small achievement - and it is crucially a decision that makes that one defining scene all the more affecting, since the sensation is hugely emphasised in the tona context of the film. Director Boyle brings his usual attention to detail and commitment to the craft of creating an aesthetic that has marked the majority of his work, and along with co-writer Simon Beaufoy he deserves the highest plaudits for making the story so thoroughly entertaining. The focus is not on bleakness, but on the strength of human endurance, told vividly and personally to devastating effect. 127 Hours is a situational horror with a vibrant, and almost tragic humanity at its core, and while it could have been a claustrophobic portrait of despair, it feels a lot busier, and intentionally more uplifting than you might have expected. For instance the sequence in which he infamously cuts his arm off is fleeting, and accomplished through suggestion and through brilliant audio accompaniment, rather than through glaring and fetishised overt imagery. For a film that has been derisively reduced to being about one moment by lazy commenters, 127 Hours is a triumphantly rich story, and even though it is a one man show, defined by a horrific situation, it never feels unnecessarily exploitative of that situation. Helpless and seemingly hopeless, he makes a video diary, until he eventually is forced to cut off his own arm to escape. The plot has been massively over-trodden by now, so I'll keep it brief: a mountain climber - Aron Ralston (James Franco) - becomes trapped in a narrow passage when a boulder falls and pins his arm. And in 127 Hours Boyle found a project that met those specifications perfectly: based on the harrowing and astounding story of Aron Ralston, the Oscar winner is available to buy on Blu-ray and DVD now.
One thing was certain: whatever he chose would have to be story-driven with an obvious and strong human element running throughout, following the trend of even his most genre of works. When Danny Boyle walked away with the biggest prizes of 2008 for Slumdog Millionaire, he reaffirmed his status as one of the best directors currently working, and would surely have had his pick of projects.
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