Captain Phillips

October 9, 2013

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Paul Greengrass directs the true-life story about the 2009 hijacking of the container ship, Mersk Alabama in the action-drama, Captain Phillips. Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) and his crew of the Alabama are traveling about one hundred forty five miles off the coast of Somalia when they are boarded by a group of Somali pirates. The pirates are led by Somali Captain Muse (Barkhad Addi) and he and Captain Phillips are at odds from the beginning. Captain Phillips retrieves thirty thousand dollars from the ships safe to give to Muse so the pirates would leave, but Muse wants to hold out for millions of dollars from the shipping company. (Can you say greedy.) The pirates eventually kidnap Captain Phillips and throw him into a lifeboat to take him back to Somalia, but the U.S. Navy is in hot pursuit. The beginning of the film depicts the harsh existence of the Somali people that leads to desperation and the hijacking of ships. The audience does have a small amount of sympathy for the pirates – as a result of the performance by Barkhad Addi. He shows both menace and sympathy while verbally sparring with Tom Hanks. This may be Tom Hanks’ best performance ever and the final 10 minutes shows why he is one of the best actors of our time. Paul Greengrass was the director for all of the Bourne films and knows how to pour on the tension in this film and keep everybody on the edge of their seat. ( I think I even fell off a couple times.) In fact, he kept the actors playing the Somali pirates separate from everyone prior to filming to prevent any sense of familiarity. In this way you could feel the danger and apprehension from both groups leading to an exciting story. There are some emotional scenes but it’s really a plot driven movie. I’m giving this thrilling film a solid A rating.

This movie has been given a PG13 rating by the MPAA