“Captain Phillips” is a movie in two parts. The first part is a slow, highjacking and survival movie with enough nail-biting moments to smooth out the clumsy wrinkles. Tom Hanks plays the title character with his famous everyman persona. On the way to the airport, Phillips and his wife (Catherine Keener) talk through heavy-handed dialogue about their kids and the changing future inside their Toyota minivan. Soon, the straight-to-business captain is commanding the “Maersk Alabama” crew around the Horn of Africa.
A MILITARY THRILLER
Cue the Somali pirates. Their first attack pushes the “Alabama’s” engines to the brink. The chase ends with Phillips and crew winning. The next day, they aren’t so lucky. Flares and water hoses can’t stop the four pirates, led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who take control of the ship with yells and guns pressed to foreheads.
The second part of the film is a high stakes game as “Captain Phillips” becomes a military thriller. The four pirates escape on an enclosed lifeboat with Phillips as hostage. Eventually, the Navy arrives. Then the SEALS. In the cramped lifeboat, Phillips talks and warms up to Muse and the pirates while outside, the Navy organizes a sweeping orchestration to finish the hunt. But the fragile pirates increasingly unhinge. Even if you weren’t watching the news in spring of 2009, you know how this ends. But that knowledge still won’t ease your grip on the armrest.
Director Paul Greengrass works best around high-tech computer monitors and sniper crosshairs than merchant marine jargon and workaday duties. Even Barry Ackroyd’s camera work and Christopher Rouse’s editing hit an easy stride by the second half. The three filmmakers are not strangers to hostages (“United 93”) or military action (“Bourne Ultimatum”), creating a second act that makes up for the limited — but still solid — first act. What starts out as an unsuspecting drama unwinds into a rough and hostile layer of moments.
A "GUT-HEAVING" PERFORMANCE FROM HANKS
It’s Hanks who pushes a dangerously formulaic movie into unprecedented waters. Like the movie, Hanks starts off conventional and consistent. But by his last scene, he delivers a shocking, gut-heaving performance. And while some might dismiss it as Oscar-bait, it’s still staggering. Since when has he been this powerful? Was it with “Road to Perdition”? Maybe “Cast Away”? Or even “The Terminal”? Either way, it’s been at least ten years since Hanks reminded us that he’s still one of the best in the business.
And don’t forget about Abdi. The Somali refugee turned Minneapolis resident makes his acting debut with fanfare. Keeping pace alongside one of America’s most iconic leading men, Abdi plays his part with ease as a greedy man in over his head. While ‘tis the season for Oscar buzz, here’s to hoping his career will last beyond March 2014.
For all its predictability, “Captain Phillips” carries some surprises. This is not a hero film about Ryan Phillips. Besides some calculated moves and commiserative conversation with the pirates, Captain Phillips remains a fairly neutral character. His most heroic moment is an attempt to calm a situation by offering his life over another crew member’s life. His escape attempt simply panics and confuses the Navy, almost doing more harm than good.
Equally disarming is the movie’s treatment of the Somali people. With clearly defined bad guys and good guys, Greengrass still shows us their slums and struggles to pay off the warlords who force them into situations beyond their grasp. At most, it is sympathetic to their situation. At least, it pities them. “Captain Phillips” carries a calculated perspective on both action films and piracy through a crowd-pleasing cinema endeavour.
