We're Still Waiting For Boyle's Masterwork

First of all the trailer is slightly misleading . It seems similar to THE BEACH where some American dude teams up with a couple of hot chicks and does some seriously partying . Thankfully the film deviates away the marketing and concentrates on Ralston's trauma of being trapped . You're left thinking this is for the best since Ralston come across a little bit too sure of himself , a little bit too smart and a little too popular with hot chicks to get the audience entirely on his side so Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beauefoy deservesome credit in to making him something of an everyman who has dreams , ambitions and family

This approach works well but the problem with the movie is that the whole premise doesn't comfortably lend itself to commercial film making . It's not an entirely involving film because the audience know the out come of the story and because the protagonist is on his own there's little dialogue and the story telling is done via obvious flashbacks to Ralston's life . The Discovery Channel does countless documentaries on these type of stories but they're rare in cinema and there might be a very obvious reason for this . There's two ways at looking at this

1 ) Boyle deserves congratulations for making an uncinematic film

2 ) The film fails because it is uncinematic

The first view is totally valid but unfortunately so is the second point to a large extent

As you might expect from Boyle it's impressive on a technical level with outstanding cinematography , editing and sound , though some people may quickly get fed up with the split screen technique . James Franco is impressive as Ralston and will certainly get an Oscar nomination but 127 HOURS will be one of the bridesmaids at the award season where THE KINGS SPEECH , BLACK SWAN and THE SOCIAL NETWORK will dominate while Boyle fans look forward to his next project