I’d probably seen the second trailer for “Captain Phillips” 50 times before the film’s release. That’s no exaggeration. Every scene, every line was engraved in my mind. It’s too bad the trailer gives away far too much, but that’s true of practically all of them. In the case of “Captain Phillips”, since it is based on a true story, most people know how the story ends. This film is all about the journey and not the outcome.
So the challenge for director Paul Greengrass (“The Bourne Ultimatum”) was to come-up with a way to grab and hold the audience with a compelling telling of a familiar story: the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. “Captain Phillips” has been compared to last year’s Oscar winners “Argo” and “Zero Dark Thirty”, as all three chronicle real-life historical events involving missions and peril, each from a slightly different perspective.
It helps that Greengrass has two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks playing his title character. Hanks is at his career best as Capt. Richard Phillips, a role that should’ve earned him another Oscar nomination.
“Captain Phillips” starts-out a little slow as we are introduced to the two men who will soon come face-to-face on the high seas. Phillips and his wife Andrea (played by Catherine Keener in a three minute cameo) live in a nice home Vermont and have a couple of kids. She doesn’t like the fact that her husband has to leave and go on long trips transporting cargo, but Richard explains that this is his job. He’s also well aware of “a potential piracy situation” on this mission along the African coast.
Greengrass then takes us to Somalia, which couldn’t be more different from New England. The Somali people live in terrible conditions. Poverty is all they know. And so they depend on hijacking ships and holding them for ransom in order to survive. Several men are selected to go a new mission and their target turns out to be Phillips’ ship. Four, in one small motorboat, make it to the Maersk Alabama. The men who play these Somali pirates are all first time Somali actors, including Barkhad Abdi, who delivers a stands-out performance as the group’s leader. Abdi has revealed that the soon-to-be iconic “Look at me” exchange between himself and Hanks, in which he utters the line, “I’m the Captain now” was completely ad-libbed. This is the clip we’ve been seeing this awards season, and Abdi is a strong Best Supporting Actor Oscar contender.
While practically all of “Captain Phillips” takes place on the open water, Greengrass shoots the film extremely tight, a technique that adds to the tension and keeps us riveted throughout. We are placed on that ship and in the middle of this life-and-death situation, and stay there for all 2+ hours. The camerawork is quite impressive. And the early action scenes when the pirates attack and take over the ship are well staged and executed.
There’s a section about halfway through “Captain Phillips” when things drags a bit. It’s no fault of screenwriter Billy Ray’s, who needed to include this lull since it’s critical to the overall story, and Phillips book (with Stephan Talty), “A Captain’s Duty”, on which the script is based. This section just doesn’t have the bite of the rest of the film. However, with about twenty minutes to go, things crank-up again on the way to a dramatic climax and conclusion. The final few minutes are a showcase for Hanks, a cherry on top of an already stellar performance. Credit goes to Greengrass for not only his direction, but for keeping these scenes in the movie.
“Captain Phillips” is rated PG-13 for the action/violence, including
some blood, language, drug use and peril. It’s appropriate for teens and
up. Unlike “Argo” (my favorite film of 2012), “Captain Phillips” wasn’t an “edge of the seat” experience for me. This is an intense film, but with subtle emotional results. However, it’s one of the best crafted films of the year and Hanks makes it a must-see.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Captain Phillips” gets a B.