Requires big screen viewing

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2013)

Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) knows how to build suspense. His latest action/adventure Captain Phillips, based on the true 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship for ransom by four armed Somali pirates, is no exception. The movie creeps, crawls, rises and falls throughout its 2h15min running time. Tom Hanks delivers but the Somali pirates are the real stars of the film.
What I liked: Greengrass goes from 0-100 in a matter of seconds. The movie has a brief and awkward start but with one flicker on the radar and a hand-held camera we are engulfed in foreboding. The action gives the movie a frenetic pace but the performances win the day. Hanks is the everyman we can all relate to and be terrified for but it's the Somali pirates who offer us more than stock villains, even with stock dialogue. Newcomers Barkhad Abdi and Barkhad Abdirahman are smart, devious, famished, suffering and wilful. They tug at our heartstrings even as we root for them to fail. They are the driving force behind a film whose conclusion made headlines.
What I didn't like: Why did they cast the wonderful Catherine Keener if she was going to end up on the cutting room floor? This frustrated me to no end when the movie was over. I can also understand why the Navy hasn't exactly applauded the film because despite their oppressive presence they don't actually seem to do or accomplish anything. I understand the need to draw out action in order to build a climax but I couldn't help but wonder if some of the sequences were just add-in plot points to embellish the drama rather than actual events.