Captain Phillips

Displaying Tom Hanks’ most terrific performance for years, Captain Phillips follows the true story of an American cargo ship which is hijacked by Somali pirates, as skipper ‘Rich Phillips’ defends his ship and crew.

Having an evident knack for the suspension of disbelief as well as the simultaneous maintenance of intensity, director Paul Greengrass bounces back from his slight 2010 miss step ‘Green zone’ to remind us of his directorial talent in his newest release. With a true to life narrative which works hard to keep close to its source material, Captain Phillips never refrains to entertain keeping an unbearable level of intensity throughout the whole course of the relatively lengthy running time. On occasion the story does slow down with repetitive scenes of nothingness as well as countless establishing shots of the boat used simply to fill time; however these moments are not significant enough to impact the overall intensity of the film. This intensity is heavily aided by the fantastic performances across the whole cast, with two in particular being deserved of momentous praise and perhaps award nominations. Protagonist Tom Hanks gives his best performance since arguably his Oscar nominated role in 2000’s ‘Castaway’ shoving every ounce of emotion into his performance with enthusiastic gusto as his character endures an emotional rollercoaster, emotion which is evident from even the smallest details of his performance. The antagonist ‘Muse’ played by first time actor Barkhad Abdi was hugely impressive playing an almost soulless pirate with a truly terrifying piercing stare and an equally unsettling monotonous tone. Unlike many films of a similar nature however Captain Phillips does an excellent job in humanising the pirates, giving them an identity to give them a motivation for their actions, this leads to the audience having a stronger connection to the villains at times feeling oddly sympathetic towards them as we witness them being almost forced to carry out the hijack.

As always in Greengrass' films the military is especially portrayed with extreme accuracy, making it seem as though we are following the actual occurrences of the time with real life navy troops, only adding to the already intolerable tension of the film. Captain Phillips shows that thrillers don’t need gratuitous violence and an offbeat storyline to stimulate the audience, only a gripping and fast paced narrative with complex characters and fantastic performances.

8/10- A hugely exciting thriller which will undoubtedly leave you fulfilled.

Calum Russell