Excellent movie-making with great performances by Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2013)

Hollywood loves to sensationalize true stories as major motion pictures. They have been doing so for decades and it sells tickets. Fiction over fact is much more enjoyable and dramatic than the often hard, dull truth. That does not necessarily mean all events depicted are false. In the case of Captain Phillips, we as audience members will never know the real experiences that man went through psychologically, emotionally, and to some extent physically. All we really know is that his cargo ship was 126 miles off the Somali coastline and it was boarded by Somali pirates. He was then taken hostage in a lifeboat where he remained captive for three days before the navy and the Navy SEALS (with their clever marksmanship) were able to save him. However, filmmakers can give us an assumed "dramatized" glimpse of the events by driving our emotions and putting us on the edge of our seats. The movie "Captain Phillips" does this with gusto and success for two core reasons.
The first is the talent. Tom Hanks, one of the best actors a director can ask for, plays the role as Captain Phillips. He depicts him as a mild-mannered, by-the-book captain who does anything and everything he can to not only survive, but help his crew make it out alive. He proves himself a very witty individual that cannot be helped admired. After all, the real Captain Phillips is a hero of sorts—not the kind who wears a cape, but a real-world brave person who is vulnerable and can be hurt. Tom Hanks plays this to the tee. For the two hours and fourteen minutes, Tom masterfully displays a wide variety of emotions—defiance, fear, bravery, shock, and sorrow. For the last twenty minutes alone, Tom Hanks truly gives a performance audience members will remember.
Newcomer Barkhad Abdi as the head of the pirate boarding-party turns in an equally brilliant performance. The writer was very smart in making his character not a one-dimensional villain. Instead, he is a man plagued by the ungodliness of the human condition—uncontrollable hate and violence yet full of boastful pride. The smug sneer on his face and his sarcastic, repeated phrase, "Everything will be alright Irish" (his nickname for Phillips) adds further to his character's sardonic personality. Bill Ray's solid writing highlights the depth of these characters; nonetheless, it is still the actors who bring his words to life.
The second reason for the movie's success is the technical works of the crew. Paul Greengrass is an auteur of the action/thriller genre and his visual style has been repeated over and over again in the mainstream action flicks—hand-held camera, natural lighting techniques, quick cuts between action, strong emphasis on field sound, etcetera. While this style has been seemingly overdone in many movies, it works well for this film. The type of camera angles put the audience right into the scene unflinchingly. Both the fast edits and the heart-pounding music heighten the tension. I sense Oscar nominations for cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, editor Chris Rouse, and composer Henry Jackman.
Even though we know what happens at the end of the movie, the people behind the camera are able to make the audience suspend their disbelief, and have them crave the suspense, thrills, and action that this ride has to offer. In a nutshell, "Captain Phillips" is a fun, intense film that excels in entertainment and characters. 10/10