127 Hours

After the third screening, it's clear to me: this film has matured and offers much more than a first superficial viewing might suggest. What hightlights it above all is its playfulness. It’s packed with so many directorial ideas and visual tricks, visual and sound games (functional flashbacks, image splitting, refreshingly chosen music) that watching its atypical narrative is a joy – this despite the slightly morbid climax. James Franco is a great actor in this film, and Danny Boyle is a genius. (14/08/2011)

This is Touching the Void in a more cinematic, but less emotional package. Boyle cuts back on the poignant sequences and instead serves up a minimalist tale of one self-centered fop for whom a smaller rock was waiting to show him that ego isn't everything. The cinematography, music, editing, and especially the acting are incredibly captivating for the entire ninety minutes, even if all of this can be summed up in a single sentence. Maybe this is how you recognize good filmmaking, and maybe this is what works better than all the sad sights from the slums. But then again, it doesn't collect gold-plated statuettes. (10/01/2011)

It can be argued that 127 Hours has no great overlap, and that it is simply a post-modern stylized testimony of courage and desire to survive. It can also be argued that subliminal stressing of fate and miraculous hunch smacks of melodramatic cheesiness. A lot can be argued about, but what really counts is the experience. Pain, despair, fear, and above them a triumphant animal desire to escape and live, no matter what it takes. And 127 Hours has plenty of raw experiences to give. That's why this is an exceptional film and one of the most intense experiences of pain I've ever experienced in a movie theatre (Gibson and his biblical exploitation should study how it's done "for real"). (12/01/2011)

Desire for adventure, desire for solitude, desire to live. Danny Boyle translates a relatively trivial story into a highly personal level, where no hallucination is purposeless and no flashback empty. With the breathtaking James Franco and a visual that never rests, 127 Hours becomes a magnificent spiritual cleansing and also the most intimate story. It is simply a difficult task that passed with flying colours and made me, despite the inconspicuous warning, desire to rush somewhere headlong, making it perhaps the biggest surprise of the season. (11/01/2011)

After some time, I’m increasing my rating to a “subjective” five stars, because it’s exactly my cup of tea. Danny Boyle once again proves his originality and ability to engagingly tell any story through audiovisual orgies. In an intimate drama with a single character, he doesn’t shy away from strong camera filters, fastforward scenes, split screens or jumping from one flashback to another. These tricks might seem out of place and irritating in a different film of this genre, but they make 127 Hours a fast-paced, riveting story that is never boring while also never straying from the sharp focus on the psychological state of the main character. It is an excellent, almost extraordinary film that made me cry with happiness at the end. (08/06/2011)