Doesn't stay afloat

Rating: 4/10 (11 April 2016)

Captain Phillips is a movie which is certainly well-made but ultimately unsatisfying. The production values are there, the entertainment is not. This should be a tight, taut, tense thriller. But the tension seeps away long before the movie finally draws itself to a close. The movie certainly has a captivating, true-life story to work with, a story which would seem to have great potential. But that potential is unrealized. The movie disappoints.
Tom Hanks plays Captain Richard Phillips, who is in command of a huge cargo ship headed to Kenya. Rather awful attempt at a Boston accent aside, Hanks is otherwise reliable as ever in the role. And the completely unknown Barkhad Abdi proves a worthy acting adversary for Hanks. Abdi plays Muse, the leader of the gang of four Somali pirates who hijack Captain Phillips's ship. The first half of the movie, setting up the hijacking from the perspectives of both Phillips and the pirates and then the hijacking itself, works reasonably well. The second half of the film, with Phillips having been taken hostage by the pirates as they fled the giant ship in a small lifeboat, works markedly less well.
Initially there is great tension as hostage Phillips tries to keep his wits about him and keep himself alive while rescue plans are set in motion. But then the movie just kind of sits there. It becomes very repetitive as we wait for that potential rescue to come. Interactions between Hanks and Abdi, Phillips and Muse, are good. But the other three pirates make either a bad impression or no impression at all. The only other standout, and not in a good way, is the character of Najee, the hothead of the pirate group. His frothing rage wears thin quite quickly. Maybe the true-life counterpart really was like this but in the movie it seems way over the top. He's the designated villain but he's too villainous for the film's good. There are some things to admire about the film. Hanks is solid, the young unknowns playing the pirates do reasonably well with their roles, with Abdi doing quite well indeed. The movie looks good, it was clearly a challenging movie to shoot and director Paul Greengrass pulls that aspect of the proceedings off well. Though there is definitely the sense a steadier camera would have worked well at times, there's only so much shaky-cam you can take. Ultimately though, as with any movie, the most important thing is the story. This story had great promise but for whatever reason it just doesn't work. As the movie careens towards, and then over, the two-hour mark the tension fizzles away. You've had enough and you're just ready for it to be over. This compelling real-life story ultimately makes for a less than compelling movie.