Thrilling raw drama

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2013)

What's with Tom Hanks being stranded in the sea and giving a stellar performance for a character to root for? An edge of the seat thriller defying the conventional runtime with a very strong antagonist character having layers of depth that even the Dark Knight's Joker could have a run for his money. While majority of today's action thrillers rely on massive set pieces, special effects, explosions etc, it is good to see a fulfilling raw human drama between very original characters.
Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is your average captain of a merchant ship MV Maersk Alabama with a thinking cap and practical attitude. Muse(Barkhad Abdi) is a volatile young Somalian pirate with a devil- may-care attitude and lots of enthusiasm to out perform his peers. When Muse's hunt for prey encounters MV Maersk Alabama, the crew throws everything they have at the pirates to keep them at bay. but Muse's determination and the ship's under preparedness to handle such a situation leads to the capture. What stays in between is Phillips composure, perfect study of the situation (though initially) and his practicality.
Barkhad Abdi is not your typical antagonist with his petite appearance and a not so captivating voice. But his unpredictability and a misplaced courage and stubbornness makes him more than difficult to handle. Tom Hanks shows his masterclass throughout the movie saving his best for the climax. Now what comes to mind about Paul Greengrass? The man who popularized the frantic camera movements and exhaustive editing skills that we have seen from 'Bloody Sunday' to the spectacular 'Bourne Ultimatum'. But he did show some promise towards handling complex human emotions in 'United 93' that does spillover to this one too. What works for the movie is its simplicity and for good or bad, doesn't lose focus from the main subjects like dealing with their back story or the perspective of their family. Which is similar to how it is done in another of this year's wonderfully done 'Gravity'.
Powerful acting and a solid hand behind the camera delivers a first-class nail-biter .