Review: Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips
Cert: 12A / 134 mins / Dir. Paul Greengrass



I'm not usually a one for a Tom Hanks film (as those of you who know me will attest), but even I've got to admit he does bloody well in this. Once you get past the opening half-hour or so of clunky dialogue and Too Many Ominous Signs, this is an incredibly tense thriller, with Barkhad Abdi stealing a lot of Hank's thunder as head-pirate Muse. The film is meticulous in spending enough time with the Somalian pirates that we don't just see them as anonymous bad-guys, but not so much that we begin to sympathise with them too much.

Once the main plot thread kicks into gear, the acting is solid all round, and Greengrass's direction can't be faulted. The same can't be said for the ground/sea-level camerawork, however, as it's wall-to-wall shakycam; particularly distracting in the nighttime shots where you're struggling to make out what's going on as the action gets hectic. There are some rather nice aerial shots, but ultimately they emphasise how jittery the rest of the film looks. Add to this the constant, frantic scoring in the final act and it almost seems like it's trying too hard. But in the end, it succeeds with a good heart and a couple of moments of much-welcomed dark humour from the Navy Seals.

My gripes aside, Captain Phillips is a gruelling, yet emotionally rewarding, watch. For many, the power will be in the story, so multiple viewings may not hold any appeal (so cinema then), but for those of you who want to see how a True Story™ can be told with the same pacing and tension as a fictional thriller, this will be worth several passes.

Pretty much.



Pretty much.



I think so.



The shaky-cam might make you want to see this on a small screen.



No.



Not for a while.



There isn't. Why not?

I'm not the only one who thought Bespin Cloud Car, am I?

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