One of the most authentic & moving portrayals of a real life event on screen.

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2013)

Post a fascinating UNITED 93, based on the real life tragedy of 9/11, director Paul Greengrass returns to portray another horrifying event of the recent history when an American cargo ship was attacked by Somali pirates in 2009, taking the captain away as their only hostage. Luckily, Captain Phillips survived that tragedy with the timely efforts of the rescue team and he later wrote a book on the event too as the co-author titled "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea", on which the film is based upon.
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS superbly gives you a realistic account of the event and is definitely not an easy entertaining watch to say the truth. Its highly impressive recreation of the attack, at first excites you well and then even makes you sea sick and claustrophobic because of its constantly jerky, hand-held camera movements edited skilfully. There is a great amount of energy and excitement in its initial moments when the pirates are fast approaching towards the ship trying to get on it from any side. But once they successfully get over the deck, a disturbing tension is all over the progression till the end, which even becomes annoying to some extent as I felt.
Without going into a documentary mode, Paul thoughtfully shows the contrasting living conditions in Somalia before introducing the pirates as pure villains. And due to that one scene alone, the viewer is not able to hate the attackers completely even if they act as a clear life taking threat to the Captain and his crew. At times the film loses its connection with the viewers in its second hour. But an energetic, fast paced background score always brings them back into the proceedings and one repeatedly finds himself sitting at the edge of his seat, watching the screen attentively.
As a frightening surprise, it has a first timer Barkhad Abdi, exceptionally playing the skinny, lean and scary leader of the pirates, standing tall in front of the towering performance of the veteran Tom Hanks. But what Tom displays in the final 10 minutes of the film, enacting the post-trauma stress in his lost expressions, is nothing short of text book material and pure cinematic triumph achieved by the gifted actor once again. Playing it pretty calm and composed in the entire film, Tom delivers what he is known for in these final moments alone and one just keeps thinking about him in particular while walking out of the theater quite honestly.
Not an easy subject to shoot, admittedly the film might not be a visual treat for a major section of viewers looking for just thrilling entertainment in those two hours. But in case you love watching intense, focused and shattering depiction of such tragic life threatening events in films, then do not miss CAPTAIN PHILLIPS especially in the theaters, since it is indeed one of the most authentic & moving portrayals of a real life event on the screen without any doubt.