Captain Phillips
If you look at the ingredients that go into Captain Phillips you have an acting great in Tom Hanks, a proven director in Paul Greengrass and a true story full of drama. It all adds up to what should be a movie that will feature heavily come the awards season. When I saw the trailer I did have some reservations however as I thought that it showed a little too much which put a bit lower down on my to watch list. But a host of positive reviews changed my mind and so I went into my local World of Cine unsure if it would live up to the hype and if there was more to the story than the trailer, in my opinion, gave away.
Well I guess the first thing I have to say is that Tom Hanks was once again outstanding as Captain Phillips. The man is just a master of his craft and is infinitely watchable be it simply dealing out orders to his crew or talking to a gun wielding Somali pirate. Normally I would say that he stole every scene he was in but that would be doing an injustice to Barkhad Abdi who plays the pirates captain Muse. Abdi who is from Somalia was making his acting debut in this movie and the way that he manages to stand toe to toe with the legend that is Hanks is the best praise I can give him.
Barkhad Abdi (2nd from left) and his crew
and below with Hanks looking like lovely blokes
The scene in which Phillips comes face to face with the pirates for the first time was excellent and one that I think gained a lot from a decision that Greengrass made to keep the Somali actors and American actors apart until that scene was filmed. It is something that Hanks has said really helped to build the tension as he found the sight of the actors intimidating. That look combined with the performances from the Somalian actors, Abdi in particular, really took that scene to another level.
Phillips comes face to face with Muse
I think that it is fair to say that if this movie had been directed by someone else we would have gotten a completely different experience and I would say in most cases for the worst. What Greengrass has done with this movie which sets it apart is give you an insight into the pirates, their motivations and personalities. They are not simply portrayed as senseless killers and I found myself having a lot of sympathy for them as the events unfold. He took it beyond being simply movie about pirates and managed to interlace it with social commentary about what is going on in war torn places like Somalia and what its people have to do to survive.
Greengrass achieves this right at the start of the film where we are shown Tom Hanks driving to the airport from his beautiful house that he shares with his loving family. They talk about his son going to college and how he needs to work hard if he wants to get a good job. This scene is then followed by a similar scene in Somalia as Muse is woken in his mud hut by the gun wielding gang members sent by their overlord to demand that the village go out and steal else they face his wrath. The contrast and at the same time similarities between the two scenes set a tone for the movie that I thought took it to another level.
"Surely there's something other than fishing and kidnapping people you could do?"
"In America, maybe"
So the leads are both outstanding and matched by Greengrass's direction and I have no doubt that all will rightfully be nominated come Oscar time. But I did have a few reservations that stopped me truly loving the movie. In particular I found that I didn't find the final act as tense as I think others may. This may be because I had an fairly good idea of what was going to happen and so some moments lost their edge due to this. This is not the movies fault as any movie based on a true story runs this risk, I just wish that I was on the edge of my seat more. Though there is one bit of acting near the end however which rates up with the best I've ever seen and it is because of moments like this that I can recommend Captain Phillips to anyone looking for an intelligent movie that tells a very real story and has two stand out performances which manage to say a lot more than the movie had to about the state of the world we live in.
Written by
Owen during a wonderful Welsh storm
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