All aboard!

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2013)

Captain Phillips is the latest nail-biter of a film by director Paul Greengrass, who continues his frenetic style of filmmaking that he showed off in the final two Bourne films and United 93. Like United 93, Greengrass is putting us on board with another real life hostage situation. This time, we are crewmates on a freight ship that's being attacked by Somali pirates.
Tom Hanks, everybody's favorite everyman, is our captain for this voyage and; as usual, he's on top of his game. I'd say this is one of Hanks' finest performances in years, possibly ever. Gasp! It's so true though. Hanks does a great job of portraying a person that has the responsibility of dozens of lives on his hands.
He stands up to the pirates with a mixture of fear and courage, savvy and naïveté. Hanks perfectly balances these aspects of Phillips, exhibiting the strength to stand up to the pirates and the ability to gain their trust.
The film does a great job of not portraying the Somali pirates as blood thirsty savages hungry for murder. Instead, they're just plain thirsty for water and hungry for food and nourishment. Their faces are gaunt and skeletal. Their clothes hang loose from their bony bodies. They resemble the ghosts of a once healthy person or grown up versions of the children we've all seen in the "starving kid" commercials. By humanizing the Somali pirates, we're able to sympathize with their plight and understand why people might be forced to do such a thing.
The pirates are played by first time actors and real Somali people who actually fled from Somalia trying to avoid the very hardships that are portrayed in the film. Casting the Somali actors added another layer of realism. The captain of the Somali pirates is played by Barkhad Abdi, who plays Muse. Abdi holds his own as he goes toe-to-toe with one of the most legendary actors on the planet. Muse seems dangerous, but you can't help but feel bad for him. You can see the desperation and fear in his eyes, but there is also a childlike innocence.
One of the major themes of Captain Phillips is the clash of culture between the Somali pirates and the Americans. There's no better example of the haves and the have nots than seeing the Somali pirates approaching the massive ship in a tiny wooden boat. When they finally break into the bridge and confront Captain Phillips and his crew, they might as well be from another planet.
Paul Greengrass has a very distinct style that might not be for everybody. His use of shaky-cam, which has often been imitated and overused in the industry, works very well in Captain Phillips. It gives the film a more natural feel and works perfectly with the natural ebb and flow of the ocean.
Muse and the other Somali pirates are clearly the villains of the film, but the true villain is circumstance. The cruel reality that people have to do such things not because they are evil people, but because there is truly no other way.