A nail-biting thriller with lead's towering performance!

Rating: 8/10 (22 October 2013)

Cinema creates drama. Drama that drives you to cry when a couple in love gets separated, to laugh at someone's idiotic misery, to amaze with the power of imagination, to get transported in to a world full of dreams or to be in situation that is just a recreation of a real life event but carries same share of intensity and anxiety characters might have experienced it in real.
Based on a true story, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS by notable filmmaker Paul Greengrass (the man behind 'Bourne' movies) throws you in a 'pressure cooker' situation where every passing minute escalates the tension in same manner the crew of American Cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama could feel, when Somali pirates invade to hijack.
With an implicit fear of the same, the cool-calm-composed but aging Captain Rich Phillips (played by the enormously gifted Tom Hanks) starts his sailing but soon in the middle of a mock-drill session, smells the alarming possibility of getting hijacked by pirates. Sadly, he fails to stop them from getting on board but never lets go the string of hope and courage for even an iota of a second, to come out of this misery of his lifetime.
10-12 minutes in the film and you know what is going to happen next but the way Greengrass unfolds the story with an intimidating sense of 'what is coming after' and the smartly edited inter-cuts between the ship and the pirate-group, you would always find yourself on edge of the seat with nails between your teeth. The camera-work effectively roams around for shaky close-up shots to give the narration an anxious-panicky-edgy feel and does a brilliant job while capturing the hijacking event. Though in the second part, film falls into being restricted & repetitive with the location of the story getting narrowed to one small life-boat, the anxiety-angst & intensity never go for the toss.
As other but very prominent strength of the film, the casting and the performances excite you the most. Barkhad Abdi as the gruesome-ghastly leader of the pirate-group plays mostly an underdog in the first part. With his regulated look, you actually never recall his first appearance in the film but later when he arises as the spearhead of the group, he shocks you with his performance. So does Mr. Tom Hanks, his calculated act as a captain determined to save and safe his crew is remarkable. Watch him in the last act where he is rescued by the armed forces and is now dealing with the trauma he's been in. A performance that deserves appreciation!
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is easily the year's one of the best thrillers coming from Hollywood. It's a well-directed, intensely acted, smartly written inspiring tale of survival that keep you engaged and involved for the most part. A must-watch!