127 Hours Opens to Rave Reviews

127 Hours, Danny Boyle’s film about the hiker who cut off his own arm after getting under a boulder, opens Friday to rave reviews. A.O. Scott in The New York Times calls it “nearly flawless,” saying that “the film leaves you with the impression of having lived, vicariously but intensely, through something whose meaning is both profound and elusive.” Scott says the film’s success rests on the gifted cinematography of Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod as well as star James Franco’s “loose physicality and free-ranging intelligence.” The film is based on Aron Ralston’s account in Between a Rock and a Hard Place of the five days he spent trapped under a boulder before deciding to sever his own arm with the blade from a multi-tool.