Review: Captain Phillips

Is it “Oscars ahoy!” for this true-life tale of piracy and heroism?


In the vein of his previous efforts to actualise the Bloody Sunday massacre and the September 11th hijackings on screen, Paul Greengrass has emerged from the Bourne franchise to lens the Maersk Alabama hijacking of April 2009, where four Somali pirates seized an American cargo ship in the first successful pirate seizure for nearly 200 years.

While the film’s decision to take as its title, and cast Tom Hanks in the role of the captain of the vessel, may suggest a one-sided, pro-American representation of events, Greengrass is an intelligent enough director to afford equal screen time to both Captain Richard Phillips and the pirate ringleader, Muse, in their actions preceding the Alabama’s seizure.

Greengrass expounds a deeper geopolitical tension that reverberates throughout the film’s central conflict – forced by power-hungry Somali warlords, these desperate fishermen must set out into the blue yonder to attack the proverbial white whales, just to earn a living.

The creeping dread evoked in the image of two fast approaching yellow blips on the radar is established not by our knowledge of historical circumstances, but by the contrast of the two nimble yet flimsy skiffs attempting to breach this lumbering hulk of a freighter. Such is the capacity of these four men to survive, we suspect it is only an inevitability that the dream these pirates dare to dream will be accomplished.

From here, the film kicks into a maelstrom of breathless action and suspense, complimented by Greengrass’ trademark handheld shakycam and rapid editing. Undoubtedly carrying the film on his shoulders, Hanks’ dialled down Bostonian register evokes new emotional depths for the actor, as his ordinary everyman is led into further plight. The shock and confusion Phillips emotes in the medical wing at the end of his ordeal is astoundingly moving, a response which will hopefully net him another gold statue come February.

Hanks is not let down by his supporting players though. Newcomer Barkhad Abdi, portraying the desperate-to-prove-himself antagonist Muse is unnervingly psychotic, yet always sympathetic. Abdi’s unorthodox physical features – yellowing teeth, bulging eyes – feel so disarmingly terrifying and desperate that it is no wonder other reviewers have noted the Captain Ahab-ian vigour of his character.

Kept apart during pre-production and casting, Hanks and Abdi would meet for the first time shooting their characters’ first encounter on the Alabama’s bridge. The disbelief of Phillips is Hanks’ own on sight of this erratic force of nature Abdi portrays.

Inevitably, in its claims to historical veracity, it is hard to determine where real events end and dramatic license begins. Additionally, the deployment of the shaky cam during the climactic standoff broaches such claustrophobic terror that the more nervous audience member was experiencing breathing difficulties; or in this reviewer’s case, fumbling helplessly for his girlfriend’s hand in the dark of the New Picture House.

All in all, with Captain Phillips, Greengrass has crafted an enthralling work of historical near-verisimilitude that will go far to detach piracy from being synonymous with Johnny Depp.

Watch the trailer here. 

 

Images courtesy of scriptshadow.net and filmlinc.com