Very tense and atmospheric thriller with two great performances

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2013)

"Captain Phillips" kept me on the edge of my seat for the majority of the film's 2 hours and 15 minutes. My favorite sequences were the chase sequences early on with the crew realizing the situation and the pirates trying to enter the ship and finally all the scenes in the capsule for the most part of the second half. The confrontations between the pirates and the crew when they finally entered the ship were okay too, but not as good as the parts surrounding them. The parts near the end create a truly memorable claustrophobic setting. The heart and soul of the film is Tom Hanks' performance. After his big rise to glory with "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump" back in the 90s, the years between 2000 and 2010 didn't look too great for him. However, I already thought he gave one of the best male lead performances in "Cloud Atlas" last year and he certainly confirms his sort-of comeback with "Captain Phillips". His acting is always appropriate to the situation his character is in and only very rarely over the top and even then it's more due to the script than his approach. Finally, as the film nears the end and Phillips is rescued, Hanks has his showy big moment when his tough facade quickly starts to crumble in the moving final sequence. These often make or break a movie and here it's definitely one of the highlights. Good job from director Paul Greengrass, who continues to have a near-perfect body of work.
Hanks gets some great support as well, especially by one man: Barkhad Abdi, who plays the main antagonist and leader of the pirate group that enters Phillips' ship. It's really a "from zero to hero"-performance as Abdi had absolutely no experience in acting before at all. Not only hasn't he been in any other movies, he also never went to acting school. And yet, he's able to hold his own against one of the greatest actors Hollywood has these days. Impressive and I believe he's rightfully in contention for a supporting actor spot at the Oscars this year. And even if he comes short, this will hopefully be the start to a good career. Black actors are still struggling these days in Hollywood, but he brings all the talent to the table to be successful.
Usually I am not too big on war-related films (I didn't like "Black Hawk Down" and only liked "The Hurt Locker" a bit) and you could see this as one in the broader sense probably, but if the atmosphere is created so hauntingly also with focus on the character's psychological situation and with lots of tension, I'm all in. Another thing done very well here was the way the captors tell about their background as fishermen to Phillips and how they, in their country, don't really have another option unlike people in the US. Does it justify their actions? Obviously not. But it makes the audience at least feel a bit sorry for them and this is again mainly thanks to Abdi's excellent work in that particular scene. I personally knew vaguely about the circumstances of the Phillips case a couple years ago and that was maybe the perfect approach. I didn't know nothing, so it had been difficult to really connect with the story, but I also didn't know about it in detail which could have hurt if I had subconsciously compared the accuracy of the film towards the actual happenings. Then again, only Phillips himself knows about most of what really happened there and I hope it truly was the way he wrote it and that he didn't add too much for dramatic purposes.
"Captain Phillips" is one of the best thrillers of the year and especially recommended because of the "really happened" factor. Also many not too well informed people may think piracy is a crime long gone and these should watch this film especially. It's by no means a perfect movie, unfortunately here and there it also has the over-the-top patriotic and self-sacrificing approach that many films of the genre have, like when Philipps screams to the captors to kill him and not the crew member that is about to get a bullet to the head, but it's bearable and just a minor flaw that doesn't hurt the overall excellent quality of this movie. Not in the slightest.