When we think of an everyday man, perhaps two actors come to mind: Jimmy Stewart, and Tom Hanks. I can imagine no other actor filling the titular role as passionately as Mr. Hanks, who seems assured for an Oscar nomination (his first since Cast Away in 2001, another high-stakes movie set on the open seas). Hanks, at first, makes Phillips a distanced man. He does not associate with his crew, and they don't seem to like him in return. His conversation with his wife (in the one clunker the film has: the opening scene, which carries on as though it were written and shot by film students) is monotonous and cool.
And then the drama. With a high threat level (do they really send emails to ship captains warning the threat of pirates in any particular area?), Phillips spots two small boats in the distance carrying armed Somalians. Led by a man named Muse (played to perfection by newcomer Barkhad Abdi), 4 men manage to board the ship and take over.
And here is where we think the suspense will happen. Or is it? Perhaps the trailer is misleading. Shortly after they board and search the ship for the crew (hidden away in the darkness of the engine room), Phillips is taken hostage as the pirates board an escape boat and set off towards their home country. They have optimistic goals: exchanging the captain for 10 million dollars. Perhaps one day Muse will be able to journey to New York City and buy a car. Or so he hopes.
The cast is largely unknown actors, which lends believability to the 'docudrama' stylings of Greengrass (the Oscar-nominated director of the brutal 'United 93'). Perhaps you know how it ends, recalling the story on the news back in 2009. Or perhaps you don't. Regardless, here is a film that follows in the footsteps of films like 'Apollo 13' by taking a true story and completely immersing its audience in the plot. Even if the story ends on a positive note, we are on the edge of our seat the entire way. That's the sign of a director who is entirely in control of the medium.
Largely an 'action' movie, we see the arrival of the Navy, bringing 3 battleships to the scene. Muse assumes they are escorting them back to Somalia. His 3 crew members are clearly less optimistic. We get to know our pirates through small moments, largely through the eyes of Hanks, and though we can't always understand their motives or their actions, these are not nameless villains, these are people with dreams and goals and fears.
'Captain Phillips' soars only because of Greengrass and Hanks, both at the peak of their powers. It's been a while since we've seen Tom Hanks in anything terrible (we can look the other way in regards to 'The DaVinci Code') but this is easily his strongest role in several years, perhaps of his career. Yes, he is largely at the mercy of pirates, and his performance is subdued and quiet, but the climax of this film is perhaps the most emotional endings I can recall. I would prefer to skip details, but the final 10 minutes of this film brings all the suspense and ferocity of the film to a realistic close, and Hanks demands our attention. I will only say that I was perhaps slightly weepy in the closing moments, unaware anymore that Tom Hanks was possibly acting. That's power, that's talent, that's a legend.
(Awards potential: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hanks), Best Supporting Actor (Abdi), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score)
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