"127 Hours" (2010)

In April 2003, 27-year-old outdoors enthusiast Aron Ralston (James Franco) took a trip to indulge in his favorite activity of escaping miles and miles away from civilization. He traveled to the winding red rock formations of Blue John Canyon in Utah and failed to tell anyone where he was going. There, he fell and got himself trapped inside a small crevice with his arm crushed and wedged between a rock wall and a heavy boulder. How could the predicament of this man's entrapment and escape be made into a 90-minute film? Only through the visual genius of director Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire").

The film is both harrowing and entertaining, and from its very opening, it's also very much a Danny Boyle film. Our introduction to Aron serves also to introduce us to Boyle's keen visual style that will later be used to punctuate pivotal moments in Aron's struggle. Boyle sends us into the desert in a rush of flashy cinematography from the gifted Anthony Dod Mantle, who also worked on "Slumdog Millionaire," and Enrique Chediak. Also hailing from his work on "Slumdog Millionaire" is A.R. Rahman who returns with a driving score to fit the kinetic and breathless energy that Boyle pumps into each frame.

Boyle has a knack for bringing vivacity and life to dire and ugly situations. From heroin addiction in "Trainspotting" to poverty and violence in "Slumdog Millionaire," his films are exuberant and invigorating. His new film, "127 Hours," is perhaps the toughest challenge taking a story strictly confined to one man and one space and turning it into an experience that is completely visionary and transporting. Based on Aron Ralston's own memoir, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" and adapted by writer Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire"), it's a film that is immediately compelling, a survival tale about psychological and physical endurance and desperation.

It helps that James Franco is such good company. This is his one man show, and he is astounding. From a cocky explorer to a helpless victim having to shed his pride, the transformation could not have been portrayed any better, and Franco disappears in the role and gives us his most demanding screen presence yet. Franco doesn't create a hero, either. He plays a man who was foolish enough to get himself trapped in a horrible situation but also intelligent enough to know how to get himself out.

The last people to see Aron are two attractive young hikers, Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn), who appear to be lost. Aron takes the opportunity to boast about his knowledge of the area and offers to be their tour guide. He takes them to an underground hot spring, a temporary paradise. Aron's show-offish and reckless behavior here, however, is a tease for his avoidance of danger, a premonition and ironic forewarning of what's to come.

Once stuck, we soon get familiar with Aron's space. He sets his watch, rope, water bottle, camcorder, camera, other assorted items and, most importantly, that blunt knife of his on top of the boulder and fashions a pulley to keep himself hoisted up and keep pressure off his feet. There is a strip of sky above him where every morning around the same time a large bird flies past. He gets only 15 minutes of sunlight each day. He spends his time chipping away at the boulder with his knife and begins talking to himself on the camcorder.

Through imaginative storytelling, we also occasionally escape Aron's space. We enter into memories of his family, parents (Kate Burton and Treat Williams) and girlfriend (Clémence Poésy). We descend into fantasies and hallucinations, as well, such as a trippy montage of drinks as a vivid evocation of Aron's thirst, and these really embed us into his state of mind. At his core, Aron is a good-natured goofball. In one instance, he pretends to be on a talk show while recording himself, and he even includes audience response referring to his predicament as an "oops" moment. We all have those moments. Except this one could get him killed. Oops.

There are some gut-wrenching and intense scenes. Most notably the one the audience waits for in nervous suspense, the moment Aron decides to cut through his arm. It is a powerful scene and not gratuitous. The editor, Jon Harris, does an admirable job of showing us the procedure without actually showing us. What becomes the worst part is actually a sound rather than a sight. The scene communicates something larger than just a jolt of discomfort because at this point in the movie, we have lived vicariously through Aron and feel his pain.

Even more, "127 Hours" culminates to an inner monologue from Aron where he addresses the guilt of his selfishness. He thinks back realizing this rock had been waiting for him his entire life. All of his actions and choices had been leading up to this single moment. Cutting off an appendage was not only freeing himself physically but freeing himself spiritually in a moment of existential bravery and poignancy.

Archive: "Sunshine" (2007)

The year is 2057. The sun is dying and so is the Earth along with it. A massive spacecraft called Icarus had a mission to reignite the sun with a nuclear payload that would create a star within a star, but it mysteriously failed. An exact replica of the same spacecraft now called Icarus II has set out to repeat the same mission and hopefully save the dying sun and all of mankind with it. A group of eight men and women, who are all the best scientists and physicists, are on board the spacecraft to take on this daring journey in space. This is the premise of "Sunshine," a taught and riveting sci-fi thriller from director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "Millions," "28 Days Later").

We're not told why the sun is dying, but with the movie only taking 50 years into the future, maybe it's too dangerous to even question. There's no unnecessary back story, and no needed look upon the troubles that may be occurring on Earth; it's all about the people in space and their mission. This is a very special and unique sci-fi movie that is meticulously crafted to present its characters with real issues and honestly devastating and complex scenarios that test their own will and judgement. These characters feel like real people in real danger; they're not the usual action-adventure super heroes. The actors (including Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, and Rose Byrne) do a fine job of portraying the emotional struggle that comes along with a mission that has such dire consequences as these.

What happens when they don't have enough oxygen to make the trip there and back? The crew members are all informed by their talking computer system, which runs throughout the entire spaceship, that they would have enough oxygen if there were only four people. Who decides who gets to live? How can these judgments ever possibly get made? There comes a time where the crew reaches the point in which all communication to Earth is cut off. They are officially alone, a community amongst themselves, and with that, things can get pretty hostile. The crew also comes across an impossible distress signal from the failed Icarus. Should they go off-course to see if anybody's still alive on that spacecraft? It obviously interferes with the mission objective. But what if they find something beneficial there? What if the payload is still intact? Two chances at saving the Earth are definitely better than one.

All of this is what makes "Sunshine" so intense. The atmosphere on the spacecraft is at times gripping and at other times downright spooky. The tension we feel throughout the first two-thirds of the film suddenly and surprisingly expands exponentially into absolute terror. There's a plot twist here that happens after the crew discovers the first Icarus. I won't say anymore, however, because I dare not reveal too much. Let's just say that things get pretty odd, and you'll start wondering about whatever it is that you're watching. It all comes to a close with an unexpected bang.

Also unique are the visuals, which are hauntingly beautiful. There's an observation room on Icarus II that allows crew members to view the sun while still protecting them from its heat. It's truly majestic, especially during a scene where the crew watches Mercury gliding past their view. The retina-boiling brightness of the sun is presented well, bleaching out the screen at times, and it's a nice contrast against the dead cold of space.

Overall, the movie is simply more than you would expect going into it; there's something to be said about the fragility of human existence to go along with the action. Just like the talented director who who's behind it, this is a movie that effectively and brilliantly transcends genres.

Archive: 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Movie Review
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)


Jamal Malik is sitting one question away from winning 20 million rupees on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" The question is how he got there. Jamal is a 20-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai. Everyone, especially the host (Anil Kapoor), is skeptical about how a slumdog could possibly know the answers to these questions that learned professionals can barely answer. The first scene of "Slumdog Millionaire" shows Jamal being tortured by a police inspector (Irfan Khan) who wants him to confess to cheating, and from there, we're launched through an extraordinary and wonderfully elliptical tale that shocks, amuses, dazzles, and ultimately transports viewers to an impossibly life-affirming world. Sure, it's far-fetched, but it's also the reason we go to the movies in the first place.

Director Danny Boyle ("28 Days Later," "Trainspotting") presents a highly stylized adventure through a vividly realized Mumbai. Even the slums are colorful and bright as the story opens with a young Jamal and his brother Salim losing their mother to a religious ambush. They run away together eventually meeting up with a girl named Latika. After escaping a corrupt orphanage, the brothers hop a train and pose as tour guides at the Taj Mahal. Latika gets lost along the way but later turns up as an adult being sold over to a nasty mob boss. Each section of their lives is played by various sets of actors at different ages, and they're all excellent, especially Dev Patel as the adult Jamal and Freida Pinto as the adult Latika. As much as it jumps back and forth through time, the narrative dives headlong with great energy towards its exhilarating conclusion. And even though the story could be labeled as a straightforward rags-to-riches tale, Simon Beaufoy's screenplay adapted from the novel "Q and A" by Vikas Swarup structures the movie into something truly special.

Traveling through Jamal's life, revealed clues illustrate how exactly he knows the answer to all the questions. It seems his life is fueled by chance, and therefore, so is the film itself. It's sometimes preposterous, yes, but never not amazingly coincidental and magical. While there are some instances of brutality, the movie is essentially a whimsical fairy tale. It contains undertones of social awareness that give it universal appeal, even if Boyle attempts to unnecessarily Westernize some aspects. Don't be turned away by the idea of subtitles, either, because it's mostly in English anyway.

And at the center of it all is a stirring and pure romance that points to the possibility of true destiny. This love is what charges Jamal's long journey and is the reason why he's sitting in the hot seat with all eyes on him. "Slumdog Millionaire" is a surefire crowd-pleaser in every sense of the word, and it'll certainly get people talking. The Oscars may even be anxious enough to embrace such an uplifting and winning tale after last year's much bleaker selections. The movie really is, if nothing more, just brilliant entertainment. And in the honor of this film feeling like a fusion of Hollywood and Bollywood, there's even a dance number in the closing credits.

Slumdog Owns The Show

Last night's Academy Awards ceremony sure went as planned as to who was expected to win. "Slumdog Millionaire" walked away proud winning eight of its nine nominations. The international rags-to-riches story swept the night clean capturing the win for Best Picture along with Director, Original Screenplay, Song, Score, Cinematography, Editing and Sound Mixing. And Danny Boyle never failed to have an entire crowd of extremely pleased Indians surrounding him.

The real surprise of the night came in the form of how the whole event was put together. The orchestra was put on the stage itself, which had an overhanging arch made of crystals glimmering above, a scene that replicated Coconut Grove where the first Oscar ceremony was held. The other surprise was how Hugh Jackman decided to go about his hosting duties. His opening musical number recognizing all the nominated films was a frantic and goofy choice, but I think it turned out well as it earned him a standing ovation. The setup of the audience was intimately more close to the point where Jackman only had to take a few steps to reach the front row to literally sweep Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway off her feet.

Hugh Jackman even cracked a few jokes. One in particular had him drawing our attention to the power couple Brangelina. "I'm contractually required to mention them five times during the show," he said. His charm was certainly undeniable.

The new style of presenting categories for acting was an inspired idea. Rather than simply listing off names, five previous winners in the category would stand on the stage and single out each nominee praising them for their work. Not only was it nice to see those previous winners collected together, but even more, it was wonderful to watch each nominee's reaction in the front row. Not only these presentations, but each other one, as well, had a distinctly new structure and design to it. The presentations for screenplay were especially clever as Steve Martin and Tina Fey were introduced by a script that typed itself out.

The rumored duet between Hugh Jackman and Beyoncé came true, which added yet another show piece to be included along with the live performance of the nominated songs. Later in the night, Queen Latifah added a little something to the "In Memoriam" segment by singing a rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You." The Jean Hershlot Humanitarian Award went to Jerry Lewis whose short and sweet acceptance speech was appreciated.

Penélope Cruz opened the wins with the first great speech of the night as she burst out into a flurry of Spanish. As predicted, she accepted her win in the category of Best Supporting Actress for her fierce role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." This was quickly followed by an astonishingly moving acceptance speech from screenwriter Dustin Lance Black whose screenplay for "Milk" won. He told every gay and lesbian kid out there that they are "beautiful, wonderful creatures of value."

Closing the evening was another pair of memorable speeches. Kate Winslet took home her Best Actress award for "The Reader," a much-deserved first win after five previous nominations. She said that she'd be lying if she hadn't already rehearsed this speech as an 8-year-old girl in the mirror holding a shampoo bottle. "Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now!" she exclaimed. She then asked her dad to whistle so she could wave to her parents. Following such an adorable speech was Sean Penn's for his Best Actor win. His portrayal of gay activist Harvey Milk beat out Mickey Rourke of "The Wrestler" in what was considered to be the toughest race. Penn showed his love for Rourke by closing with, "He's my brother."

When arguably the biggest upset of the night came in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, you know it certainly was not an evening of surprises. The film "Departures" from Japan beat both France's "The Class" and Israel's "Waltz with Bashir." The win could've been promoted by the new rule that the Academy members must actually see every film in the category before casting their vote. I just hope that this win allows the film to makes its way to playing in theaters here.

After its whopping 13 nominations, "The Curious Case of Benjamin" only came out winning in the technical categories of Visual Effects, Makeup, and Art Direction. As the best-reviewed movie of the year, "WALL-E" of course captured its win for Best Animated Feature as director Andrew Stanton accepted the award. Another memorable moment came with the win for "Man On Wire" in the category of Best Documentary Feature as tightrope walker Philippe Petit opened his speech with "Yes!" and then proceeded to balance the Oscar statue on his chin and make a coin disappear saying how magic is possible.

The most beautiful and heartbreaking moment of the entire evening was the award for Best Supporting Actor given to the late Heath Ledger for his unforgettable work in "The Dark Knight." That was the blockbuster's one of two wins, the other being in the category of Sound Editing. Ledger's father, mother, and sister gathered on the stage to accept on his behalf, which caused tears to flow from the eyes of many audience members including my own.