Eastwood lands the plane

Rating: 7/10 (4 September 2016)

An intelligently unfolded drama that makes good use of multiple flashbacks and internal visions to bring the audience not only inside Sully's head but also to really 'feel' the emergency landing rather than just witness it, without disturbing the flow of the film. Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart give solid performances and their portrayals of pilot and co pilot respective are compelling and likable. Laura Linney is good but doesn't have much of a part. After that it's just a handful of featured passengers, who are a little predictable but not problematically so, and the investigation team, who come across right off as having an agenda to scapegoat Sully - needed for drama, otherwise you don't really have a film - based on fact or not I can not say. The big event is very well portrayed, and seen from multiple perspectives several times via flashbacks. CGI was occasionally a little obvious but I watched on an IMAX screen, the largest in the world, so possibly that exacerbated the issue. I don't recommend seeing it on the IMAX - too many close ups of cast which felt weird plus I perceived a kind of jerkiness in movement at times as if frame rate was off for the giant screen - no idea what caused this or even quite how to describe it, but it was distracting. IMAX was great for the flight scenes and that's it. Good job Eastwood and co. 7.5.