Tom Hanks, the 'Hero' in Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips

Director: Paul Greengrass
With: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi

Survival has been the theme of my week in movies lately. After watching Sandra Bullock struggle in space, here comes Tom Hanks as sea Captain Phillips getting through the hands of Somali pirates.

Captain Phillips captured my attention ever since its trailer came out. It got me curious because it features REAL life survival and modern piracy drama. I had a few knowledge about pirates, the rest I knew from fantasy films like Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan wherein we have the good pirate in Jack Sparrow and the bad pirate in Captain Hook. In this film,  pirates are no fantasy and they're scarier than ever. They are extremely thin, have yellow eyes, and rotten teeth, wearing ragged clothes, yet all of them exist to terrorize and never once play for pity. Tom Hanks leads the film as the captain of U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama which was hijacked by Somali pirates last 2009. I knew by then that Captain Phillips is a must watch.

It certainly did not disappoint. With its more than 2 hours running time, director Paul Greengrass filled his viewers with pulse-pounding scenes, humanizing & charismatic characters and stupendous acting performances. I didn't even notice the time as I was watching it. Greengrass took us back and forth to the small speedboats of the Somali pirates to the cargo ship Maersk Alabama. Add to that the beautiful bird's eye view shots of the ship. And then as Phillips saw the impending approach of the pirates toward them, we were absorbed into a relentless suspense from that scene to the end. There are so many shots in each of the scenes, I can't think of a single shot that lasted 10 seconds. Seems like a hard work well done by the editor!

The characters were introduced sufficiently to the viewers, thanks to Billy Ray's compelling screenplay. The beginning of the film showed Phillips' relationship with his family and the chaos brewing in the Somali shore because of the failed piracy attempts by the other Somali pirates. These stories provided the reasoning behind the actions of these contrasting characters throughout the film. Captain Phillips was shown as a firm, courageous and protective captain focused in his work. And as what real Captains do, he held responsible for the safety of his crew. The Somali pirates, particularly their leader, Muse, turned out to be a vulnerable human with ambitions despite his motives of hijacking the ship for money. The moment these two met by seeing each otheir through their own binoculars is one of the strongest scenes in the film. These characters also delivered numerous quotable quotes that just adds up to how impressive the screenplay is.

The film has numerous strong points, but Tom Hanks performance is the highlight of the film. I felt like I haven't seen Tom Hanks in a decent movie in forever. But the classic Tom Hanks, who we idolize, love, who is expert in capturing raw emotions and can effectively make his characters iconic, is back in this film. Almost throughout the film, Tom Hanks played Captain Phillips with a great amount of subtlety. But in the final act of the film, that's when he brought out the emotions in everyone with his out of this world intensity. He's simply amazing! Barkhad Abdi, the pirate leader, wasn't bad either. He's a very charismatic villain and he delivers his lines perfectly with humor and passion. They make for a great duo of protagonist and antagonist, despite having extremely different characters. I'm rooting for them to win lots of awards for their work in this film.

It's such a shame that some of the real life crew of Maersk Alabama were actually claiming that the real Captain Phillips is not the hero the film had depicted. But ignoring this controversy, Captain Phillips remains to be terrific that will surely make it as one of many people's favorite films this year.