Review: Captain Phillips

Four words: Tom Hanks and Pirates. If that isn’t enough for you to go see this movie, then I don’t know what is. Based upon the 2009 Hijacking of the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia, Captain Philips tells the story of, well, Captain Philips as his ship is boarded by Somalis pirates. Not surprisingly, viewers and critics have fallen in love with this movie, and I’m no exception. It has amazing directing, writing, and editing and conspires to create a dangerous atmosphere, with beyond excellent performances from the lead actors.

The film follows Richard Philips (Tom Hanks), the Captain of the Maersk Alabama, a container ship containing goods knowingly traveling in Somali waters. The film also follows Muse (Barkard Abhi); a Somali Fisherman hired to steal ships to sell them off, as he gathers a crew and attempts to hijack the ship. The Maersk Alabama tries, and fails, to escape the pirates, and is then boarded by Muse and his crew. Philips gets held hostage, and must somehow survive his capture with the Navy Seals hot on their trail.

Hanks gives another outstanding performance, and likely this is one of his best performances to date. However, Barkard Abhi steals the show from Hanks. With no acting experience, he brings an amazing performance as Muse, a surprisingly likeable pirate that makes you care for him, maybe even more than Philips himself. In fact, the film portrays the enemies in a very sympathetic light, forced into piracy because of poverty and pollution in the waters. We really end up caring for all of them and you start feeling sorry for them, wanting them to somehow make it out alive. This is not your average America is awesome, foreign guys are evil movie. The supporting casts also have moments to shine, including some local Navy Seals and one moment near the end with one of the Navy Medics.

Director Paul Greengrass perfectly sets this desperate, dangerous, and dark atmosphere. It leaves us constantly on the edge of your seat and by its final act, speechless. However, the beginning does drag on a bit, as it tries to set up the movie, made worse with a somewhat shaky camera. As the movie gets going, the viewers do get used to the shaky cam style, but it sticks out like a sore thumb during the first third of the movie. The film then spends a majority some time inside a cramped lifeboat, with Philips, Muse, and the other Somalis inside. While many viewers might find the claustrophobic feel adds to the tension, others might find it boring and be turned off.

Also, some may find that Philips is, for lack of a better word, idiotic, as he knowingly goes into the waters that he knew were full of pirates. But, he went ahead anyway just to save money. It doesn’t help that some of the crew in real life is suing Richard Philips for this reason.

Overall, this is one of the best movies this year. The direction is great, the writing is fantastic, and the actors are phenomenal. While the movie does have flaws, though most are minor, and the movie is at least guaranteed some Oscar nominations. While some may be turned off by its slow beginning, cramped environment in the second half, or Philips’s dumb decisions, but in the end, there is no denying the film is extremely well done.

Final Score: 9/10