Outstanding

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2014)

This is an outstanding film, from start to finish. It's a masterpiece of acting, pacing, editing and with a perfectly-pitched soundtrack to boot. It benefits from being based on a pretty dramatic true story in the first place, but Paul Greengrass and co have treated the material intelligently to create a tense, believable and truly thrilling movie.
While I have no doubt that they've taken some liberties with the facts and added a good dose of Hollywood magic, at no point do things feel overdone or cheesy.
Hanks is predictably brilliant in the title role, with the final scene being particularly noteworthy. Barkhad Abdi, Barkad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed and Mahat Ali - all first-timers - turn in solid performances as the Somali pirates. The story is balanced and never tries to either paint the pirates as out-and-out evil, nor as hard-done-by cuddly bunnies. It simply shows, in a believable and nail-biting way, the outcome of an extraordinary set of events.
I only wish more movies coming out of Hollywood were so well executed, as this just goes to prove you don't need explosions, overdone CGI or ridiculous plot twists to create a piece of truly engaging cinema.
Very, very, very good indeed.