Stunning, taut, nail-biting. First serious Oscar contender this year?

Rating: 10/10 (17 October 2013)

Films are frequently, cruelly judged by their final twenty minutes. Movies live and die by the impact the final scenes have upon their audiences, regardless of the immense power or utter guff that went before. By those rules, Captain Phillips clears ten stars effortlessly. The audible expressions of emotion last night were testament to that. However, unlike many 'feel-good' films that merely satisfy at the end after hollow beginnings, the film that just might win Tom Hanks his third Oscar surfs a wave of near perfection from first light to setting sun.
Yes, Captain Phillips is that good!
Based on actual events, though how accurate is open to much speculation and a substantial lawsuit, Captain Phillips depicts the hijacking of the American container ship Maersk Alabama in 2009 by pirates off the coast of Somalia. When two boats are spotted heading at speed directly at his vessel, Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) attempts a futile defence with fire hoses before instructing his crew to hide in the ship's bowels while he negotiates with the Somali pirates, led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi).
What follows is a battle of wills against circumstances with Phillips desperately trying to save his ship and the lives of his crew and himself, while Muse argues and threatens for a multi-million ransom, knowing that failure means imprisonment in the USA or death at the hands of his bosses.
The trailer suggests an action-packed join-the-dots drama where good must surely triumph over evil and where right and wrong are clear-cut, but with Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum, Green Zone) at the helm, there is nothing predictable or cheesy about Captain Phillips. The opening scenes with Phillips and his wife, Andrea (Catherine Keener) simply establish the man and his character while eschewing obvious references and strands to be alluded to and tied up at the conclusion. But beyond the initial five minutes, the tension rises, agitation sets in and terror scrapes at the nerves.
There are many clichés that could be used (nail-biting, edge of the seat) to describe Captain Phillips. It is a film of true horror where we watch with fingernails digging into our palms and buttocks clenched tightly. A small part of the mind thinks "Thank God it isn't me," while the bigger part is too caught up in the events to give a damn about anything else. Greengrass has excelled himself (again!) with the nerve-jangling events that are far too realistic to be comfortable viewing.
This is no gung-ho, "America, f*** yeah!", Act of Valor propaganda bilge. Captain Phillips is raw, real and difficult viewing at times. We are so used to the SAS, Navy SEALs or Marines bursting onto the scene in a barrage of gunfire and explosions to save the day that the quiet, arrival of the SEALs is unnerving. There's no panoply, just a cold, quiet, calculated arrival. They do the job and depart so silently and matter-of-factly that they could be plumbers gathering their tools after mending the sink. It is chilling to see such a perfunctory display in the midst of harrowing circumstances.
Captain Phillips is Hanks' film through and through. He dominates with a presence that commands our attention and shakes us into a numb silence. The odd Larry Crowne aside, Hanks is a solid actor worthy of (most of) his plaudits, but his performance as the titular character has greater intensity and completeness than we've seen from him since The Road to Perdition, or perhaps even Saving Private Ryan. Phillips' terror at the hands of his abductors and the dread of probable murder are palpable enough in Hanks' performance, but the emotional maelstrom he suffers in the final act is too convincing, too real to suppress the throat lump and dampened eyes.
But Hanks is so convincing in part because he has fine performances to play against, not least of all former taxi driver Abdi in his acting debut. The lines may be lost sometimes, the delivery occasionally stilted, but we never once forget that he is the man holding the gun. We know his Muse is in the wrong; piracy is a crime. Period. But he conveys Muse's own rising panic that this job might just go south and, if it does, that the repercussions will be far more serious than his village simply going hungry.
Henry Jackman's (Man on a Ledge) score intensifies the tautness crafted by Billy Ray's screenplay and honed by Greengrass' superb direction. It never overpowers us but adds depth to the visuals and heightens the emotional state.
Captain Phillips works as a companion piece to the little-seen Danish film, Kapringen (A Hijacking) earlier this year. But where as Captain Phillips takes us deep into the frantic mechanics of the hostage situation from the crew's point of view, Kapringen is a slower, quieter film that covers many, many weeks from the 'safe' perspective of the shipping company and negotiators. It, too, is intense and puts the viewer on edge but in a quieter, moodier way than Captain Phillips. Regard it as preparation before the main event.
There is a slight possibility that Oscar may nod at Kapringen, and a nomination might be just, but it's far less of a risk to predict that Hanks will earn yet another nomination. If the Academy does see fit to award him his third Best Actor Oscar, to match Daniel Day-Lewis, rest assured, he will deserve it for substantially more than the final twenty minutes.
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