Film Reviews
By Rama Gaind
127 HOURS
The Oscar-winning team of Slumdog Millionaire – director Danny Boyle, writer Simon Beaufoy, producer Christian Colson and Indian composer A.R. Rahman – are back with another winner: 127 Hours.
Inspired by a true story, it is based on Aaron Ralston’s autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place.
This is the triumphant true story of mountain climber Aaron Ralston (played brilliantly by James Franco), who cut off his lower right arm with a dull knife to escape from beneath a boulder after being trapped for more than five days in Robbers Roost, Utah, in 2003.
He didn’t tell anyone that he was going to Canyonland National Park and is caught in an isolated canyon. He gets a chance to examine his life, survive the elements and discover that he possesses the courage and ability to get himself out of his predicament through any means possible.
He holds on for dear life as he runs out of water, hallucinates, talks to his camcorder and recalls memories of friends, lovers (Clémence Poésy), family, and the two hikers (played by Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident.
Boyle is a genius director: he capably meets the challenge by building up the anticipation and pulls it off remarkably, together with the expertise provided by cinematographers Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak.
Not to be missed!
HEREAFTER
Death is the mainstay of director Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter that intertwines the lives of three individuals whose lives have been touched by death.
Matt Damon takes on the role of psychic George Lonegan, a loner, who is able to communicate with the dead, but has given it up to try and have a normal life.
Those who come to terms with the existence of the afterlife include a French journalist (Cécile De France) who survived a near-death experience, a British schoolboy (George and Frankie McLaren) looking for answers following his twin brother’s death and Lonegan himself.
The film, which addresses psychic phenomena in a sincere way, deals intelligently with death and bereavement – even though it works at a stealthy pace.
Scripted by British writer Peter Morgan, this is one movie that’s very different from his earlier works including The Queen, The Deal and Frost/Nixon. Morgan is said to have written the screenplay after the sudden death of a close friend.
An emotionally complex film, Hereafter would have been one of Clint Eastwood’s most challenging projects.
