Films “based on true events” are often tricky business for Hollywood. While true stories like the events portrayed in “Captain Phillips” are ripe with human drama and real stakes, there’s a surprisingly fine line between Oscar bait and Hallmark Original Movie.
While neither sides of that spectrum are always appealing to average audiences (who are neither stuffy Academy voters nor 80 year-old grandmas), “Captain Phillips” strikes a fine balance.
“Captain Phillips” tells the true story of the 2009 hijacking of the container ship the MV Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates, and the resulting hostage crisis involving the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips.
Aside from being an entertaining thriller, “Captain Phillips” also serves as a form of cinematic redemption for Tom Hanks. The actor hasn’t had much commercial or critical luck over the past decade aside from “Toy Story 3”.
His role as symbolist Robert Langdon in the film adaptations of “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons” received lukewarm reception. “Larry Crowne” fell on deaf ears, and “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” was as emotionally manipulative as its title is unwieldy. That’s why it’s so nice to be able to say that his performance as the titular Captain Phillips is easily his best role since “Road to Perdition”, and will likely be nominated for his first Oscar since “Cast Away” in 2000.
It’s also a nice return to form for director Paul Greengrass, who followed up the superb “Bourne Ultimatum” with another Matt Damon vehicle, the lackluster “Green Zone”. Greengrass uses his trademark “shaky-cam” style of filmmaking in “Captain Phillips”, and while the visceral documentary style he more or less brought to Hollywood has often been imitated to mask poor choreography and cinematography, the camerawork in “Phillips” serves to immerse the audience while still feeling subdued, much like Greengrass’ previous fact based drama, “United 93”.
Much like “United 93” as well, “Captain Phillips” doesn’t pull any punches by telling a story as morally grey as the real world the story came from. The Somali pirates in the film are not depicted as villains, but complex characters that we are given almost as much backstory at the beginning as Captain Phillips is.
The actions of the pirates are of course deplorable, but we are at least given context to their actions and the sense of hopelessness in their home country without feeling like the audience is being preached to.
Much of this success is thanks to the performance of Barkhad Abdi as Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the leader of the group of pirates. “Captain Phillips” is seemingly Abdi’s first major acting role, and is powerful and impressive enough to grant him an Oscar nomination along with Hanks.
“Captain Phillips” does hit an eventual lull that feels rougher than it should, however the two hour and 24 minute run time still moves at a brisk pace, with a climax almost as tense as last years “Zero Dark Thirty”.
Simply put, “Captain Phillips” is a better film than expected. While it isn’t as wildly inventive as it’s best picture rival “Gravity”, “Captain Phillips” is perfectly effective at telling a story as powerfully as possible.