Plot
Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is sailing the MV Maersk Alabama – an American cargo ship – from Yemen to Mombasa when, off the coast of Somalia, his ship is boarded by pirates. Led by a man called Muse (Barkhad Abdi), the pirates seek to take control of the ship and its treasures but, when circumstances change, opt to take Phillips hostage. So ensues a desperate race to save an innocent man’s life.
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| Ever the fan of pantomime, Tom just wouldn't look behind him. |
Review
Based on a true story of a pirate hijacking in 2009, Captain Phillips marks a barnstorming return to form both for director Paul Greengrass and lead man Tom Hanks. By their lofty standards, both men have had a tough couple of years – Hanks in particular has struggled with most things starring his actual fleshy face (as opposed to, say, the animated face of everyone’s favourite cartoon cowboy) – but Captain Phillips is first and foremost remarkable in its steadfast dedication to the thrills and spills of its own genre and beyond.
Creating a nail-biting thriller based on an event where the ending is already common knowledge – or at the very least easily deductible – is no simple task. And in less talented and experienced hands than Paul Greengrass – who tested his mettle with the similar United 93 – Captain Phillips’ at times languorous pace and overlong runtime might threaten to sink the boat. Fortunately, with peerless technical proficiency, a ceaseless enthusiasm for tension, a refusal to steer to phony convention and, of course, the strength of its cast, Captain Phillips rides proudly on the crest of the wave of success.
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| He was never a 'got ya nose' kind of guy, |
So, awful metaphors aside, what are we actually looking at with Captain Phillips? ‘Group of dudes squatting in a tiny boat for an hour’ doesn’t naturally scream AAA thriller shtick, and indeed it’s not for good chunks of time. Yeah the tension is there, and the excitement – in a bout of hyperbolic majesty, not one but three US Navy ships are milling about the place come the credits – but this is a character examination if there ever was one.
Hanks is outstanding, an emotional powerhouse and one man roller-coaster, hitting marks as diverse as a somewhat douchey boss to a broken man clinging desperately to survival. It’s not all about Hanks however. All of the Somali pirate crew mark their screen debuts in remarkable fashion – Barkhad Abdirahaman’s Bilal can seriously pull of the ‘wide-eyed and terrifying’ thang – but the plaudits are all Barkhad Abdi’s for the taking as Muse. Equal parts sinister and weirdly charming, he helps Captain Phillips transcend the boundaries of simplistic thriller into something far more wide-reaching, profound and affecting.
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| Dogging: the next generation. |
There are two states of play here: a human (singular) story, of survival in the face of adversity; and a human (species) story, where the globalization and commodification of society has forced one-time fishermen into piracy. It’s a remarkable and ostensibly conflicting balance and one which, through intelligent narrative sequencing, Captain Phillips just about manages to keep in hand. The MV Maersk Alabama is an aid ship, transporting food/ water/ medicine to war-torn poverty-stricken Africa, so is it not the most delicious sort of dramatic irony that it’s this boat the pirates of war-torn poverty-stricken Somalia decide to hijak? Eyes on the prize, as the old saying goes, and there’s no physically bigger prize than the Alabama. But as the pirates find out, what does size matter?
It’s a rare enough thing for a predominately action/ thriller type affair, but Captain Phillips is a seriously layered sonofabitch.
Let’s get this straight: we’re not looking at a perfect homerun here. Some scenes are clunky – like the intro that may as well be subtitled ‘Exposition’ – and it’s definitely overlong for the sort of story it offers. But it’s hard to care too much.
Captain Phillips has the global perspective in hand, so it’s not surprising that it mark’s one the world’s best films of the year.
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| 'Yar, me hearties! Thar be some doubloons and loot and...stuff!' |
Verdict
A director prowling at the very top of his private food-chain pulls off two magic tricks: yanking the best performance for years from one of the industry's finest leading men and finding an unknown talented enough to hold his own against him.
5/5
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