English director Paul Greengrass has defined his career by
way of making films about post nine-eleven paranoia. He tackled this subject
most explicitly in the movie “United 93”, about the airplane that was
voluntarily crashed by its passengers on September 11th, before it
could fly into its Washington DC target.
Of course, he originally made his name directing two of the most
profitable and critically praised sequels of all time, in “The Bourn Supremacy”
and “The Bourn Ultimatum”—a franchise that I kind of don’t ‘get’. But even in
those films, as pulpy as they are, Greengrass brought a sense of terror-awareness
into their genre tropes.
With
“Captain Phillips”, a true story about a blue-collar freight-sailor whose ship
is attacked by a small group of armed Somalia pirates, Greengrass returns to
the type of Hitchcockian claustrophobia that got him awards consideration in
2006 for his work in “United 93”.
Perhaps
more of a situation than a story, the screenplay focuses on the emotional
turmoil that the characters go through while trying to survive this tense
ordeal. The film begins calmly while we watch the Phillips (Tom Hanks) as a he
prepares his crew for the worst. After receiving an alarming email, he stages a
loose terror-drill and shows the men where they need to hide when/if they are
attacked. When their ship is eventually taken over, these men are forced to helplessly
wait in the dark corridors of the engine room while Phillips tries to peacefully
negotiate with the desperate assailants.
Also, at the front of the film, the screenplay
makes some lite—and somewhat incidental—thematic juxtapositions, in regards to
the world’s economic struggles. We see Hanks
as Phillips talking to his wife (Catherine Keener) about the competitive job
market in the United States just before a cut to the land-bound pirates making
deals with their war-lords about how much money they are expected to bring
home. But pay no attention to the man
behind the subtexual curtain; while the political gesturing isn’t explored enough
to register the way it’s supposed to, “Captain Phillips” is a lean, no-nonsense
thriller, and a fairly effective one at that.
The always-dependable Tom Hanks plays this
character with a firm consistency and a sharp consciousness of his emotional
state. He begins the film as a the kind of hard-working boss who isn’t
particularly liked by his employees but who still manages to send tender emails
back home to his worried family. Later, when the action kicks into gear, we see
how his demeanor changes into a selfless, humble man who tries his best to keep
his crew safe, even as he puts himself at risk. By the end of the film, after
he has been put through the worst kind
of psychological torment, Hanks successfully shows us how Phillips is able to
hide his inner terror with a fragile facade of courage. The rest of the
ensemble, including African non-actor Barkhad Abdi , who plays the leader of
the pirates, should be praised for their convincing performances as well.
As a
stylist, Greengrass never directs his action movies in an overly- showy or
attention-seeking manner. Rather, his approach is indebted to the story and how
best he can serve it. While “Captain
Phillips” isn’t saying as much as it thinks it is, it knows how to raise the
stakes and keep them up for the duration of the film. Occasionally, to create a
sense of documentary realism, the camera shakes or the focus pulls more than is
probably necessary, but the tension is strong enough and the performances are
good enough to keep you invested in how this set-up will play out.
Grade: B+
Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/Oct-2013
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