Captain Phillips

Rating: 4¼ / 5

 

"How can they send us out here without some security?" asks a crew member after the MV Maersk Alabama survives a scare with a pirate skiff. It's a great question that never gets answered, but like Captain Rich Phillips' legacy, is still making news. In the end, I don't care about what actually happened nearly as much as I suppose I should. For those of us that are fans of the Bourne Trilogy + 1, we're already familiar with Paul Greengrass's use of hyper-realistic cinematography. What this means for those of you who couldn't watch the second and third Bourne movies due to the shaky camera, you will have some trouble with this one, but not nearly as much. The first fifteen minutes was the only time that trying to track the main characters left me feeling motion-sick. Thankfully, nothing really happens in those fifteen minutes, so you could just close your eyes if need be. The film really gets going when we first see our pirates, led by Barkhad Abdi's Abduwali Muse, and it never really stops. That's what I really enjoyed about this movie, there is literally never a dull moment. Tom Hanks does a great job as Phillips, but Abdi's portrayal of the now-convicted Muse, upstages him. In a year when Christoph Waltz wasn't in a major motion picture, Abdi is my vote for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Greengrass does a great job taking you along for the ride; you genuinely feel as if you're there: I caught myself thinking "Oh, they're going to stop those pirates from getting the ladder on the ship" knowing full well they weren't and being disappointed and a little worried when they didn't. Greengrass's hyper-realism made the ride more enjoyable, and when it's all over, you'll end up feeling just as exhausted yet relieved as Captain Phillips.