A forgettable retelling of an unforgettable event

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2016)

In "Sully," Captain Chesley Sullenberger spends a fair amount of time musing about how his life's legacy is defined by a plane crash that took only 208 seconds. Sully's life was only noteworthy for those 208 seconds. As one might predict, it turns out that this biopic is also exciting for about 208 seconds.
Sully's main focus is on Capt. Sullenburger's difficulty handling the media attention following the crash, and the investigation that the airline did into Sullenburger post-crash. If you don't remember hearing much about this investigation in the news, that's because it wasn't newsworthy. The movie makes this investigation to appear bigger than it is, and the threat of a lawsuit lasts for exactly 90 minutes of screen time, only to magically disappear as the movie is about to end. Just before the credits roll, even the villainous plaintiff lawyers seem to concede that they never really had a case against Sully anyway. This threat never seemed credible to the viewer, and it disappears in an incredibly anti-climatic way.
While great biopics like Fincher's "The Social Network" play up real dramas in the lives of notable historical figures, "Sully" is a 90 minute picture about a three minute event. Luckily, Eastwood handles the crash itself pretty well, showing the viewer windows into the lives of multiple passengers on the plane, so we have people to be concerned for in the heat of the action.
The movie suffers from jarring edits and needless jumping in the narrative. Sometimes we see Sully before the crash, and sometimes we see him after- the crash itself is shown about halfway through the film. Before we see the crash, there are a handful of "gotcha!" moments in which we see the plane almost crash inside of Sully's daydreams. The whole concept of jumping back and forth seems totally random and unnecessary. The "gotcha!" daydreams also only hurt the film, as they cause nothing but frustration for the viewer.
This is a weak film by Eastwood's standards. Even though its runtime is a slim 1h 36m, Sully feels overlong, and that's because there's simply not much to make of the story. This is a competent enough movie, and is a better choice than some other films currently in theaters, but you shouldn't lose too much sleep if you skip this one.