Tom Hanks Delivers A Great Performance As Captain Phillips

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2014)

Captain Phillips is based on the true story of the hijack of the Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates.This incident led to merchant mariner,Captain Richard Phillips,being taken hostage in the Indian Ocean by Abduwali Muse and his crew.It stars Tom Hanks as Phillips together with Abduwali Muse,Catherine Keener,Faysal Ahmed,Michael Chernus and David Warshofsky. The account was taken from the book,A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea,written by by Phillips himself together with Stephan Talty.Paul Greengrass was the director at the helm in it.
The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama's commanding officer, Captain Phillips and the Somali pirate captain, Muse during the hostage incident.Both are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips' unarmed ship.In the ensuing standoff as well as that of the US Navy and the Somali pirates,all find themselves at the mercy of each other.It ends when the three SEAL marksmen finally get three clear shots and simultaneously kill the pirates as Phillips was about to be executed by his hostage takers.The final scenes reveal Muse is taken into custody and arrested for piracy while Phillips is rescued and treated.
While critics and many reviewers found this film to be a masterpiece,I myself saw many flaws in it.The scenes between the US Navy and the Somalian pirates particularly when it comes to negotiations with Captain Phillips somewhats undermine the Navy's skill in handling the situation considering that the Somalian pirates are not that knowledgeable and could be deemed as inferior opponents.The amount of time they needed and the excessive manpower used against 4 Somalian pirates before managing to save Phillips could be described somewhat more of an embarrassment and viewers may find themselves asking the Navy's capability in rescue operations.Aside from that,the constant shaking of the camera is found to be a distraction while watching it.Added to that,the tension of the film decreases and the viewer may become impatient as the film ends especially at the point when Phillips tried to escape his captors and too much Navy manpower are rendered clueless in dealing with the Somalians and the empathy for Phillips decreases at a certain point of the film.But despite of the negative things I have said,I felt that Tom Hanks delivered a wonderful performance and was able to overcome the things that I have mentioned in watching this film.He definitely provided one great performance and he exhibited range which he has never shown in his previous movies.Also,we get to see great acting by Barkhad Abdi.Overall,I would consider it one good movie but far from a masterpiece that garnered many Academy Award nominations with possible exceptions to the performances Hanks and Abdi.