127 Hours

Danny Boyle's latest is one of those films where the story (based on true events) is now so well known - man gets trapped whilst out canyoning and after 127 hours eventually manages to free himself by breaking his own arm and cutting it off with a blunt penknife - that the appeal of the film is not so much in what happens, but how we get there.

In the lead, James Franco has to do the tough job of carrying the film almost without another actor to play-off, and whilst he maybe comes some way short of Tom Hanks in Cast Away, he manages to pull it off (no pun intended).

Meanwhile, Boyle manages to add surprising moments of both beauty (the first sunrise) and humour (see the moment when Franco as Aaron Ralston is forced to drink his own urine for the first time). That said, he also succeeds to creating the feeling that the audience is there in the canyon with his star and things do become gradually more disorientating as Ralston's health declines and edges between reality and his hallucinations blur. So, we end up feeling the huge sense of relief when Ralston does indeed free himself. Not all aspects are quite so successful - Ralston's premonition of having a son, which seemingly prompts his arm-cutting escape, is handled without much conviction and feels slightly out of place despite the post-escape coda.

Overall - 7.5/10 This is not Boyle's best, but is still a powerful, raw film - just not one I think I'd like to see again.