REVIEW: Sully

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Shortly after I saw the trailer for Sully, Clint Eastwood’s new drama about the heroic pilot who saved 155 lives by landing his disabled plane on the Hudson River, I heard someone joke that it looked like Flight (the Denzel Washington movie) without all the booze, drugs and naked women. That guy was closer to the truth than he knew – both films play out in remarkably similar fashion, albeit with distinctly different protagonists and endings.

However, the better of the two is the one based on a miraculously true story. The uplifting subject matter also seems to have inspired the usually workmanlike Eastwood to step up his game a bit. Sully is easily the director’s best effort since 2008’s Gran Torino.

His decision to collaborate with fellow Hollywood icon Tom Hanks, in a role that’s tailor-made for his everyman, “just doing my job” demeanor, is a sound one that results in a crowd-pleasing, often emotionally stirring tale. I’m a notoriously poor judge of box office promise, but “Sully” seems destined to make eleventy billion dollars.

If there was ever a movie that didn’t need a plot summary, it’s this one. Unless you were living under a rock in 2009, you know all about Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Hanks) and his awe-inspiring grace under pressure after a flock of geese took out the engines of his US Airways flight shortly after takeoff. What should’ve been a horrifying crash that killed everyone on board instead became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

What many people don’t remember is the stressful investigation that followed. Several computer simulations showed that Sully and his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) could’ve made it safely back to the airport instead of ditching a multi-million dollar aircraft and risking the lives of passengers and crew. Obviously, the people onboard begged to differ, but their careers and reputations were in jeopardy until the truth came to light.

The movie splits its time between the brief, harrowing flight – it lasted approximately six minutes – and the investigators’ (played by Mike O’Malley, Jamey Sheridan and Anna Gunn) examination of the aftermath. As such, the scenes depicting the inquiries and hearings are largely devoid of any drama. Anyone with access to television, a newspaper or the internet knows the outcome, so the screenplay (credited to Todd Komarnicki) ends up going through the motions, checking off boxes while painting people tasked with a thankless job as villains.

Sully clocks in at a remarkably short 95 minutes (you won’t hear me complaining), and that’s only because Eastwood pads it with a couple of unnecessary flashbacks to Sullenberger’s childhood and military days. Those scenes don’t contribute anything to the story that couldn’t have been taken care of with some expository dialogue.

When it comes to performances, as you might imagine, this is essentially a one-man show. Hanks is clearly in award season mode, gunning for an Oscar nomination that has eluded him since 2000’s Cast Away. (I’d argue he was robbed twice in 2013; he deserved a shot at Best Actor for Captain Phillips and a Best Supporting Actor nod for Saving Mr. Banks.) He seems to effortlessly evoke Sullenberger’s no-nonsense manner and unwavering devotion to both his wife (the amazing Laura Linney, wasted in a role that couldn’t have taken more than two days to shoot) and his responsibilities as a pilot. He’s a man of few words, but when he talks everyone is interested in what he has to say.

Because he has such limited dialogue, Hanks relies on body language and facial expressions to communicate most of the character’s emotions. His choices pay off effectively, particularly in the film’s many “what if?” dream sequences. Eckhart, O’Malley, Sheridan and Gunn are solid too, although they’re clearly there to serve Hanks the ball so he can spike it over and over again.

Perhaps the most surprising element of Sully is screenwriter Komarnicki’s reliance on a constant barrage of groan-worthy humor to let the air out of scenes that risk growing too self-important. My friend and I teasingly suggested that it should’ve been called Dad Jokes: The Movie. One line in particular, delivered in cheesy fashion by Eckhart (you’ll know it when you hear it), was so painful that I leaned over and whispered to my buddy, “it’d be hilarious if that’s where the movie ended,” only to gape in astonishment as the credits began to roll.

That’s not a dig at Sully by any means. Honestly, it’s kind of endearing – this is a movie chemically engineered to appeal to middle-aged men everywhere. Why wouldn’t it truck in that kind of tension-breaking laughs?

Sully is rated PG-13 for some peril and brief strong language.

Grade: B