127 Hours (2010)

Directed by Danny Boyle, this film tells the story of Aron Ralston, the young mountain climber and all-round adventure "dude" who hacked off his own arm after being pinned by a falling boulder while canyoneering all alone in the Utah canyonlands. Given the grim premise and the fact that we know in advance what has to happen ("no, hacking at the rock with your pocket knife won't do any good -- you're just blunting it for later, when you'll need it for something else..."), Boyle did a good job injecting the film with a sense of tension and suspense.

Ralston comes across as the fairly self-centred, single-minded individual that I suspect he would be in real life, but there's no denying the freakish horror of his predicament, and the sheer pluck that was needed to do what he did to survive.

Bottom line: I saw this feature in a list of top movies "you love but wouldn't want to watch again"; I reckon that's fairly accurate.