Oh, I thirsted for a good realistic movie

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2015)

The movie addresses a real case, the pirate hijacking of a US cargo ship near the Somali waters. Tom Hanks plays very well, as expected, although I found his character not very challenging most of the time. There are some scenes, though, that required an actor of Hank's caliber and he totally pulled through.
Another thing I appreciated was that the film doesn't go over the top with drama or special effects. It is mostly a character driven film and both Hanks and Abdi are very good in their roles. As far as I could dig up, the film is also pretty realistic, true to the actual events. Needless to say, this is exceedingly rare in American "based on real events" movies.
An interesting fact is that this ship was the first US ship to be hijacked by pirates since 1815. It would have been a big blow to US if the pirates would have succeeded. The film hints of this in a single scene where the rescuers are instructed that Philips getting to Somalia is not an option, otherwise it is pretty difficult to understand why three US battleships participate in the rescue of a single man and why they were prepared to sink the rescue boat if the negotiations would have failed.
All in all I am not sorry that I watched this film. It needs a certain "real events" mood to enjoy it thoroughly. Well acted, well directed, I really needed a movie that was not disrespecting the viewer with pure fantasy or/and a shitty script and trying to compensate with pretty explosions.