127 Hours

Danny Boyle, 2010 (8.8*)
This is a true story of hiker-climber-biker-canyoneer Aron Ralston's solo trek into the Blue John Canyon section of Canyonlands in southeastern Utah, some of the most remote canyon terrain in the U.S., not made a national park until 1964, when re-discovered in modern times by Secretary of State Stu Udall during a helicopter flight.

Ralston is excellently played by Oscar-nominee James Franco, who captures the youthful exhuberance of a child at heart, mixed with an older man's previous wilderness experience - he was actually a volunteer wilderness rescue expert and part-time canyon guide and knows this area well.

I've been in this exact part of the country (and Joshua Tree outside L.A.), and we did a lot of what we called bouldering, or climbing rocks without any equipment, but we never took the chances that Ralston did. About half an hour into the film, Ralston meets some lost ladies (one of whom is one of film goddess Kate Mara, Transsiberian) and shows them both their intended trail, and a hidden underground pool by dropping about 30 feet through a crevice from above (which is shot with some excellent cinematography).

After saying goodbye to his new friends, Ralston is climbing alone when he dislodges a loose boulder at the top of a crevice, which causes him to fall into it and the boulder lands just the right way to pin his right hand and arm to the side of the narrow crevice.

He's now trapped in the bottom, about fifty feet below sky, but he does have his video camera, and his daypack with water and a little food. Of course, the title of the films implies how many hours he remains trapped, you should know that much. But since he has a video recorder, we would know his story whether he survived or not. He certainly thinks he's doomed, and records final goodbyes for his mom and friends.

I went into this with some trepidation about the film's pace and creativity, but the on location terrain in southeast Utah that I've been in myself (Arches Nat Park and Canyonlands are two of my favorite in the U.S.) was the hook for me. I've been there many times, at various ages - it's a desert paradise on earth, one all climbers and hikers should visit, and re-visit.

Boyle has a way to make any film engrossing - I enjoyed Shallow Grave, Millions, Trainspotting, and Slumdog Millionaire, the latter a best picture winner and all definitely worth seeing. I thought Shallow Grave was a perfect parody of Hitchcock suspense thrillers, with three robbers trying to both hide the unspent loot and live together, two guys and a girl, a formula that you know spells disaster.

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Millions

Danny Boyle, 2004 (7.9*)

Long before he did Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle explored the same idea of rags to riches with the comedy Millions. Two brothers are playing in an empty box next to the railroad tracks, one saying he would wish for a big bag of money to come their way. About the same time, a train passes and someone throws a big bag of money off the train, which tumbles down the hill and into the boy's makeshift clubhouse!

Thinking the money fell from heaven, the boys hide the money, and begin using it to help others, a la Robin Hood. Soon complications arise, however, as some adults begin to get suspicious of the boys' activity.

This film raises ethical issues not bothered with in Slumdog, as in that film the money was legitimate. In this case, the origins of the loot may be criminal, making the kids accessories after the fact for not turning it in. Being rather poor, it also asks if people would 'do the right thing' or help their own desperate situation when given the opportunity.

Not as engrossing as Slumdog, but along with his first film Shallow Grave, yet another examination by Boyle of the theme of sudden riches presented to the downtrodden, and how it would change multiple lives.

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Shallow Grave

Danny Boyle, 1994 (7.6*)
After best picture Slumdog Millionaire, I decided to check out the few Danny Boyle films I hadn't seen, really only Shallow Grave, an early one. I expected some sort of crude cheap-looking B movie, like Bogdanovich's early Targets, which was cheesy and cheap in spite of a retiring Boris Karloff (playing "Orkov"). Instead what Grave showed me was a clever tongue-in-cheek parody of the best of Hitchcock's homicidal thrillers.

The film begins with three snobbish flatmates interviewing potential roommates for the fourth, and empty, bedroom. Ewan McGregor is perhaps the most obnoxious, Christopher Eccleston the more bookish and reserved (yet arrogant all the same), while Kerry Fox is slyly seductive while playing along with both guys. Due to her persuasion, they take in a mysterious writer, and find that he has a heavy suitcase full of quite a surprise.

Without any spoilers, let's just say at that point the games begin, and being a Boyle film, this includes homicides, bodies, police, and general mayhem disguised as urban normality, as the probable state of decay of modern life. I loved the comedic undertones to what is really a suspense film, Boyle's attitude here keeps the movie enjoyable on either level. Nothing deep here, but good entertainment, not to be missed by Boyle fans.

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Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle, India-UK, 2008 (9.5*)
Best Picture (AA,BAA,GG)I had to wait until it came out on dvd, but Slumdog was worth the wait. Fans of either British director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary) or Bollywood won’t be disappointed. From the very beginning, when this story of two brothers growing up as orphans in the streets of Mumbai starts with Jamal (now almost an adult), played by Dev Petel, being brutally interrogated by police about fraud on a game show, you realize you’re in a Boyle film. The frank and brutal style of Trainspotting is evident throughout this film: tilted camera angles, blurred montages, fast editing – its either Boyle or Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, both have similar action styles. Both cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and editor Chris Dickens won well-deserved Oscars, as the pace and visual style of the entire film are knockouts – it only slows down a little toward the end, and after the first 90 minutes you’re nearly breathless.

The film begins in the present, then tells the story of Jamal and his brother Salim in flashbacks, wonderfully played by four young actors at two age levels when growing up. The story contantly shifts back to the police interrogation, and Jamal’s story of how he knows all the trivia allowing him to do well on the show. (Amil Kapoor is very good as the slick game show host). We get glimpses of Latika, a girl the brothers help when all are orphans, and who grows up into the gorgeous Freida Pinto, one of the most stunning actresses ever.

Without giving too much away, this is brutal story of crime and survival that is also a heartwarming and uplifting story. It shows the darker side of India: religious violence, torture, child abduction, street crime, child slavery. Basically, all the things you get from extreme poverty. Yet, in Jamal, we have a character based on hope and positive self-image, rising above his roots, who turns away from organized crime, continues to fight for survival, and search for his true love.

This had to be an excellent novel, based on "Q & A" by Vikas Swarup. The screenplay adaptation by Simon Beaufoy was an excellent and won an Oscar®. However, I think the real star of the film is A.R. Rahman's terrific music (one of the best scores in years), winning him two Oscars®, as he also won for the song "Jai Ho", shown over a mock Bollywood musical number during the film’s closing credits, with the entire cast dancing between trains. Hats off to either Boyle or Tandan for that terrific sendup, from a movie that was hardly musical, or even light-hearted.

I rarely give out a 10, but this will make the second one for 2008 films, Wall-E being the other. I’m very surprised that Indian co-director Loveleen Tandan didn’t also receive an Oscar®, as Danny Boyle did. Slumdog swept the Oscars® if you weren’t noticing, winning for picture, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing, sound, music, and song. Eight Oscars®

Note: The film is in English; what little is in Hindi is translated with on-screen balloon subtitles coming from the character speaking, a novel way to do those. On top of the Oscars®, Slumdog won just about every critic's award this year that Wall-E didn't win.

A link to the awards page (75 won in all) at IMDB: Slumdog Awards

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A Life Less Ordinary

Danny Boyle, 1997 (8.2*)
I always liked this wacky romantic comedy best of all of Boyle's films. The story is just farfetched enough to be unique: two angels, now on probation, hilariously played by Delroy Lindo and Holly Hunter are being forced by the Big Guy to make two loveless people on earth fall in love with each other. Cameron Diaz is a spoiled rich girl, who likes to shoot apples off butler Stanley Tucci's head; her dad, Ian Holm, is a corporate CEO jerk, who fires janitor Ewan MacGregor, who then kidnaps Diaz with a little help.

The crime starts a chase, which maybe starts a romance, which becomes a musical fantasy (Ewan sings Beyond the Sea!), with the angels surveilling the entire story, for if they fail they have to be reincarnated into bodies again, and neither one wants that - especially Holly's angel, which gets banged up somewhat! Some won't like this farce, some will - fluff for sure, but I thought pretty danged hilarious fluff, especially the fantasies thrown in.

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