The movie isn’t a patch on Slumdog Millionaire or any of Boyle’s previous films. It’s 93 minutes of torture, really.
So what comes unstuck here?
Several things.
1. The film makes for a 10-minute short film to be exhibited at film festivals and competitions. Not a full-length film.
2. The film isn’t entertaining after the protagonist’s right hand gets sandwiched between a boulder and a canyon wall.
3. The few comic interludes do nothing to elevate the film to any higher level.
4. At the end, you realise that this could just be one of the You Tube videos that do their viral rounds on Facebook and other social networks. Like the guy whose hand was trapped in a furnace for three days before the rescue team arrived. He was trying to replace one of the fins in his home furnace when his arm got stuck and he fashioned his own cutting tool and had almost amputated his arm when rescue came.