By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

How long does it take to cut off your arm with the dull blade of a knife?

Fortunately, it doesn’t take 127 Hours.

Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later, Millions) continues his winning streak and innovative approach to filmmaking with this based in reality film about a young guy who literally gets caught between a rock and a hard place and after hours of isolation, does the only thing possible to get free.

James Franco, who is rapidly leaving his Spider-Man days behind him, stars as Aron Ralston, a brash, impetuous guy who loved solo rock climbing. And it very nearly cost him his life.

Boyle hardly ever takes the easy way out as a director. Outside of a cheap made-for-TV movie, few directors would dare to make an often claustrophobic and sometimes harrowing film about a guy with a boulder stuck on his hand. Fewer still would  could make 127 Hours cinematic experience you won’t forget quickly.

Boyle does over do some of the effects a bit (he also co-wrote the screenplay). The man is not perfect after all. His resume also includes the regrettable The Beach. But for the most part, the fast-paced frenzied images that accompany Ralston’s capture by the really  big rock, as well as a memorable soundtrack, work and set the tone.

Despite the great movie-making, you can’t credit Franco enough who  gives a career-making performance as Ralston. Franco (who also has gotten a lot of recognition of late for his portrayal of Allen Ginsberg in Howl) captures all of the self-assurance of Ralston, who must have felt invincible to go off by himself so many times into Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

127 Hours has a rollicking, exhilarating start, as he first drives and then mountain bikes into a remote part of the canyon. He even meets a couple of young women, and is their part-time guide for some crazed underwater shots, before going off on his own again for his fateful slip up and encounter with that large, immovable rock.

It is as Ralston examines his life, the good things, the shortcomings, that we get to meet his family and friends in flashback, in a series of  sometimes  hallucinogenic settings. Ralston did document some of his time captured by said rock, in both video and digital camera and he shared his film with Franco in the making of the film. It really paid off  because even without knowing Ralston, there is a sense of what the guy was all about in 127 Hours.

The advance word on 127 Hours is that movie-goers have fainted, left the theater and more because of the intensity of the arm-cutting scene and all that leads up to it.

If you are squeamish, 127 Hours may be just a bit too much, but you can always close your eyes  at when the time comes. Otherwise, you will be missing out on what has to be one of the best motion pictures of the year.

Critic's rating B+

Rated R