Review: 127 Hours

Agree that the pacing & length of the film, whilst superb, didn't really give the impression of being there 5 days.
Felt like he got trapped, had a nap and then "Right then, better cut my arm off".
The flashbacks/hallucinations did add to the story and allow for flashy visuals/editing, but gave no real feeling of "shit...5 days and out of water...this is bad".

A slight criticism of an otherwise excellent film.

Double post sorry

Edited at 06:27 on 24/01/11

Watched this last night and enjoyed it a lot. I was expecting more of a long drawn out feeling but as mentioned it seemed to fly by. The amputation scene was one of the few times in recent memory that I've felt a bit light headed at something on screen.

Enjoyed this immensely, wasn't expecting to.
The arm-removal was just horrific thanks to the sound editing.

And I loved the "He now leaves a note wherever he goes" coda at the end.

Really enjoyed this, despite the gruelling non-story. Wasn't a huge fan of Boyle's frenetic cut, but I guess he had to make the film exciting somehow.

Most of all, I can't believe how short the film seemed considering it's 90-odd minute length. It really just flew by which is amazing (and possibly the wrong impression to get) when you're supposed to be sympathising with a guy that has been stuck for 5+ days.

I was thinking "Man, try chipping away at the stone harder - don't just jump straight to lopping off a limb. Consider your options, is all I'm saying..."

Great write up, Ali. Franco was extremely good, which is something I can't say I ever imagined saying when I was watching him be a total badass on Freaks and Geeks over a decade ago.