We're Still Waiting For Boyle's Masterwork

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

This approach works well but the problem with the movie is that thewhole premise doesn't comfortably lend itself to commercial film making. It's not an entirely involving film because the audience know the outcome of the story and because the protagonist is on his own there'slittle dialogue and the story telling is done via obvious flashbacks toRalston's life . The Discovery Channel does countless documentaries onthese type of stories but they're rare in cinema and there might be avery 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 secondpoint to a large extent

As you might expect from Boyle it's impressive on a technical levelwith outstanding cinematography , editing and sound , though somepeople may quickly get fed up with the split screen technique . JamesFranco is impressive as Ralston and will certainly get an Oscarnomination but 127 HOURS will be one of the bridesmaids at the awardseason where THE KINGS SPEECH , BLACK SWAN and THE SOCIAL NETWORK willdominate while Boyle fans look forward to his next project