Captain Phillips (2013)
Starring Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, and Catherine Keener
Directed by Paul Greengrass
The true-life plot of Captain Phillips is incredibly simple. Our title character -- Richard Phillips -- is captain of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship traveling along the east coast of Africa past the country of Somalia to the west. Notorious for being an area heavily frequented by pirates, Phillips (played by Tom Hanks) and his crew cautiously make their way past Somali waters, only to find themselves being attacked by a small pirate boat with a crew of four headed by a young Somali man named Muse (Barkhad Abdi). The setting eventually changes to a much smaller lifeboat, but, ultimately, the same overall perspective doesn't really change as we're still dealing with the concept of an innocent man fighting for his survival.
Somehow, though, despite the lack of a truly complicated story, Captain Phillips overstays its welcome by quite a bit. I realize we're dealing with a true story here, but director Paul Greengrass doesn't quite succeed at keeping the tension ratcheted up at all times. When we're dealing with the more massive scope of the bigger cargo ship, the ever-moving camera of Greengrass fits quite nicely adding to the constant tension felt by Phillips and his crew. However, about halfway through when the scene shifts to the smaller lifeboat inhabited by Phillips and his four captors, I couldn't help but think Greengrass wasn't able to adapt and this portion of the film fell rather flat for me, seemingly dragging for much longer than he intended. I find this rather odd as Greengrass has proven he can work under more constrained conditions as his United 93 takes place inside the cramped confines of an airplane and holds a place in my Personal Canon. Something didn't click here, though.
What Greengrass does successfully accomplish is to pull a very nice performance out of Tom Hanks. When the film begins, Phillips is just a normal guy talking with his wife (Catherine Keener in what essentially amounts to a cameo appearance) about their kids as he drives to the airport. When he arrives on the Maersk Alabama, his only perspective is moving the cargo from Point A to Point B. However, as soon as the threat of pirates becomes imminent, we see Hanks' Phillips flick a switch and become a quiet hero -- someone who puts himself in the line of fire before his men, doing whatever he can to keep his people safe, while, at the same time, creatively "scheming" to make sure he's always one step ahead of his captors. We can sometimes see Phillips' inner mind working, planning out his strategy, and I found it interesting to watch. By the film's end, Phillips has a moment for his bottled up emotions to come steaming out and the scene solidifies the performance as being one of Hanks' best of the past decade.
In the end, however, Captain Phillips is a film that should've been tense and riveting throughout, but it really isn't all that successful in achieving that goal in its second half. The flick works for the first hour -- the scene of the pirates invading the cargo ship is stellar -- and its final scene is riveting, but overall, this one proved to be a disappointment for me.
The RyMickey Rating: C+
I completely agree with all of that. It felt so long! But the last scene was remarkable.
ReplyDeleteI think you vastly under-rated the film. And furthermore, here's a heads up for you: Somalia is on the east coast (not west coast) of Africa.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are most certainly correct that Somalia is on the east coast of Africa -- there are numerous maps thrown up throughout the movie that indicate that. However, I disagree with your opinion that I underrated the film. To me, with the "prestige" (of sorts) that the director carries and considering the fact that he's created pulse-pounding movies before, this was a let down to me.
ReplyDeleteJustin -- I concur that the last scene was fantastic.
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