REVIEW: Captain Phillips

Courtesy of Sony

Tom Hanks has been out of Oscar mode for a while. Instead, he chose to make a few paycheck movies (Angels & Demons) so he could focus on his producing career, some personal projects (the underrated Larry Crowne) and lending his box office clout to difficult films that might not have gotten made without him (Cloud Atlas).

Now he’s back on the awards circuit in a big way, with a stellar performance in Captain Phillips, the latest fact-based thriller from Paul Greengrass. The esteemed actor’s collaboration with the director of United 93 is an intense one, even for those who remember how the crisis played out in 2009.

Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) is the tough, no-nonsense leader of the Maersk Alabama, tasked with transporting the ship’s cargo safely through pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia. Unfortunately, the crew’s journey is not a successful one. The ship becomes the first American vessel in 200 years to be hijacked by pirates, commanded by the skinny, fearless Muse (Barkhad Abdi, in a stunning debut performance).

The film’s first hour is a cat-and-mouse game between the two crews, as Phillips and his men attempt to prevent the pirates from boarding, then try to evade them once they force their way onto the ship. While Phillips is distracting the other bandits (played by newcomers Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed and Mahat M. Ali), his crew captures Muse.

The opposing sides attempt a trade, but somehow the Somalis are able to take Phillips hostage and escape in a tiny, enclosed lifeboat. That’s when the movie transforms into a claustrophobic nightmare. In cramped quarters, the captain attempts to keep his kidnappers calm while they negotiate a ransom during a maddeningly tense standoff. In the meantime, Navy SEALs have been deployed from Virginia in a last-ditch rescue attempt. The big question is whether they can make it in time.

Greengrass uses his famous handheld shooting style to great effect here. Every scene feels tense and confined, even as Phillips is leading the pirates around the gigantic cargo ship. The filmmaker’s technique provides the film with documentary-style realism, which is bolstered by Billy Ray’s straightforward, no-frills screenplay.

None of that matters without the right performances, and Greengrass found the perfect actors to tackle the material. Hanks delivers career-best work here, particularly the shock-induced breakdown Phillips suffers in the final moments. It’s dark, wrenching stuff, and Hanks deserves kudos for being brave enough to allow viewers to witness such vulnerability.

He’s matched every step of the way by Abdi, who should be in serious contention for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. The film doesn’t dispute the fact that Muse is a villain, but the newcomer instills his character with strength, humanity and a surprising amount of humor, preventing him from coming across as a moustache-twirling cartoon character.

The film gets off to troubling start in the opening moments due to a clunky, didactic conversation between Phillips and his wife (Catherine Keener), but the story settles down once the action shifts to the sea. It’s a gripping true-life tale of heroism worth seeing on the biggest screen possible. 

Captain Phillips is rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and for substance abuse. 

Grade: B+