CAPTAIN PHILLIPS and His Captors

Based on the real life story and book by Captain Richard Phillips, Captain Phillips is an authentic recreation of the events leading up to the hijacking of an American freighter ship on the high seas by modern day Somali pirates in 2009.  Directed by Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum), the film is a non-stop edge of your seat entertainment that puts you in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation.  Tom Hanks and a talented supporting cast bring the participants to life in one of the year’s best films. 

Phillips is a responsible commander of a freighter with a small crew.  As he boards his ship and readies to embark at sea, a group of Somali men prepares to search for nearby ships to board and hold hostage for money.  As the freighter nears the Somali waters, the pirates give chase and the race is on as Phillips follows a series of procedures to elude and repel the invaders.  When the pirates board and take control of the bridge by force, the dynamic has shifted to a hostage situation. As the Somali, who are smart and cautious, search the ship for other crew members, it becomes a tense game of cat and mouse.  Led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi), the pirates want money even as US military forces come to the rescue.  A tense standoff leads Phillips and his captors to the freighter’s life boat and a race against time to save the brave captain. 

Phillips and his crew take creative steps to make this hijacking as difficult as possible.  They even follow a protocol for securing the ship from boarders by running drills and taking extra precautions.  Phillips himself proves resourceful even when alone with his captors by making innocent suggestions that have ulterior motives and meaning. 

The scene where the pirates take over the bridge is well shot and has a real time feel.  Nobody shoots docudramas better than Greengrass with his rapid edits and handheld cameras.  He conveys a sense of progressively worsening desperation and hopelessness.  Henry Jackman’s score matches the intensity of the film. 

Like the concluding mission in Zero Dark Thirty, the final sequence here is meticulously detailed and ratchets the suspense to an unbearable level even though most people know how these events transpired.  The play is the thing, and Greengrass executes the finale like a true, military SEAL operation complete with preparations and tactics.  The climax is a brilliantly edited moment of split second timing, patience, and decisive action. It affects the audience on a visceral level where so much is at risk

Hanks (Saving Mr. Banks, Philadelphia) is completely convincing as Phillips.  Abdi is authentic and menacing as Muse, all the more impressive since he was a total amateur when cast in the role. You even feel a bit of sympathy for Muse because he comes from a place of poverty where there are few options in life, and you come to realize that he is a person under extreme pressure from his bosses on the mainland.   In fact, utilizing mostly unknowns aside from Hanks, works to the film’s realism.  The other Somali men are each given a chance to shine and have unique personas which makes what happens to them a shared experience. 

You also wonder how Phillips’ wife and family are reacting to the crisis but you never see them despite Catherine Keener’s brief role as his wife at the beginning.  That could have raised the stakes a bit more emotionally.

By the film’s stunning resolution, there is an emotional release in Phillips that the audience shares.  It is in these last several minutes that Hanks draws you into his heartbreaking trauma.  It is here that he excels in an emotional performance in an emotional film, where a brave man said and did the right things under extreme duress.  

***1/2 of **** stars (add ½* for Tom’s last few minutes)