94 minutes is all Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle could squeeze out of James Franco talking to a boulder and a camcorder. Thank God.The oscar-winning director takes a stab at chronicling mountain climber Aron Ralston’s true story of survival with 127 hours. Just as film audiences knew Titanic would sink and Emile Hirsch’s character in Into the Wild would perish eating toxic berries, only if you had been in a coma for the year 2003 would you not be somewhat familiar with Ralston’s tale.
After a boulder falls and pins Aron (James Franco) deep in a cavern tens of miles away from civilization, he spends over five days hallucinating and rationing a burrito, water (and yes, finally his own urine) to prolong what would usually be certain death. When he decides to do the unthinkable with a cheap, dull made-in-China-multi-tool stocking stuffer from his mom, it’s way too late in the film to be invested in his survival.
The first 45 expository minutes of Cast Away are missing here. The character depth we received in the flashbacks of Into the Wild is gone. The audience’s only escape from Ralston’s rock in over eighty minutes include several fantasies of soda and beer, momentary childhood remembrances and a vision of an unborn son.
It’s worth mentioning that Franco’s performance is gripping – even if he does little more than bodyslam a fallen rock and scream begrudgingly at the sky. He’s just great at it. And Slumdog cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle breathtakingly paints the desert skies like a vividly colored 80’s Kodak commercial. This is an artful film that’s sometimes fun to look at and listen to (thanks A.R. Rahman).
Too bad the boulder couldn’t have had more lines. Then there might have been a story.
- Hillary Smotherman
