A fine piece of work from Greengrass

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2013)

The Review: The combination of the words "True story" and the name Tom Hanks will always result in immediate Oscar buzz for a project. But is the hype justified?
Captain Phillips tells the story of the 2009 hijacking of a ship by Somali pirates and the military operation to rescue the crew led by Captain Richard Phillips.
Paul Greengrass (Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) takes a similar angle as Clint Eastwood did with Letters from Iwo Jima, refusing to paint the villains of the film as merely one dimensional characters with no background.
After introducing Phillips and his wife as they reluctantly part ways when Phillips is called to duty, we are immediately thrown in to the world of the Somali pirates.
Living in squalor, the pirates are ordered by "the elders" to get into their boats and seek out ships to be hijacked. Organised and determined, the pirates waste little time in pinpointing the lone vessel at sea and embark on their mission to approach and takeover.
You can guess from the title that this film is all about the experience of Captain Phillips. The film makes no attempt to get under the skin of his crew, instead focussing on the pressure building on the experienced Captain, desperate to protect both his crew and get home safely to his family.
Like with all of his previous work, Paul Greengrass shoots the hell out of this film with quick fire editing and a pumping score. Some have grown irritated by his shaky camera technique but his style always delivers a sense of urgency in his films, never wasting a single frame and keeping the film ticking at a furious pace.
The hijacking itself is an incredible piece of filmmaking. Armed with merely water hoses and flare guns, we can feel the world crumbling around the crew as the armed pirates eventually board the ship.
However, it is when Captain Phillips is taken hostage in a lifeboat that the film begins to falter.
The breakneck pace set at the start slows down to an exhausting crawl, resorting to longwinded scenes of the hijackers shouting orders at Phillips and threatening to execute him. Now I don't doubt that this happened in real life but the scenes are simply too long for the screen.
With 20 minutes left of the films running time, I started to feel deflated that the film had lost its momentum and simultaneously baffled at the hype surrounding the supposedly Oscar worthy performance of the leading man.
But then something miraculous happens. The film changes gear yet again as the military attempt their rescue which results in one of the most nerve shredding and emotional finales I have seen in some time.
For a mere 5 minutes of screen time, Hanks delivers a performance so raw and full of emotion it left me in tears and completely changing my opinion of the film as a whole.
Let us not forget the performances of the Somali pirates led by untrained actor Barkhad Abdi. Their performances are so flawless and so natural that they deserve equal credit.
Overall, the film is a fine piece of work from Greengrass that attempts to show a human side to the pirates rather than the usual faceless stereotypical villains we have seen in other films.
Reviewed By: Daryn Castle
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