Well done recreation of the event but too much about the investigation

Rating: 8/10 (9 September 2016)

Bottom line is this movie about good luck and heroism is a unique and rare true story that is worth watching and deserves a grand big screen portrayal. It shows everything you want to see about the water landing and rescue in painstaking detail. Tom Hanks is right for the role of modest hero. The production values are good and the content is interesting. Liked the way he imagined the alternatives to the water landing and the way the flight and passengers were portrayed quite realistically with middle aged stewardesses and cramped seats.
The flaws in this movie are the structure and focus. Firstly the jumping back and forth in time breaks up the impact. Better if the story had been told chronologically with maybe just one flashback. The right way to do it would have been the whole flight and landing, then the investigation.
Secondly the focus was more on the NTSB investigation which should have been maybe a 15 minute part of the movie. It was terrible that he had to justify his actions and you feel righteous indignation at the NTSB investigators etc who questioned his judgement. The exoneration could have been faster. So it was right they had all this in the movie but this aspect was dragged out and left a bitter aftertaste.
Tom Hanks looks old here with his white hair and a little less lean than the real person. But he does a restrained and effective job. Aaron Eckhart is a good co pilot. Anna Gunn is good at playing the hateful character - here the villains are the investigators.
There aren't many happy endings in events like this so it's good it was made into a movie. Worth watching.