The final act of Captain Phillips is perfect, and the first two acts aren’t too shabby either. Director Paul Greengrass navigates this intense thriller to places of deep human meaning which place the film firmly among the best of the year.
You probably know what the movie is about. Tom Hanks plays Captain Rich Phillips, who is piloting an enormous freighter around the horn of Africa when it is threatened by Somali pirates. The film gives almost equal screen time to the pirates, though, which is one element that sets it apart from your average thriller. Barkhad Abdi plays the lead pirate Muse and matches Hanks’ brilliant performance beat for beat. I hope Hanks is nominated for an Oscar for his understated and simultaneously riveting performance, but I equally hope that Abdi is given awards attention because without his menace, guile, and resolve… Hanks’ role loses all of it’s weight.
If you are familiar with this true-life tale of Somali piracy, you may think you know what you are getting with this film. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you don’t know what you are getting with this film. I personally didn’t remember this story amidst the many tales of Somali pirates that have made their way West over the past several years. But while you’ll be glued to your seat from the tension of the hijacking as the film succeeds wildly as a thriller, you’ll also be given subtle and meaningful glimpses into the “why” of it all.
Abdi plays lead pirate Muse as a smart and fearless individual. He isn’t evil, and as he points out in fairly perfect English, he also isn’t Al Qaeda. He just wants money, and “everything is going to be okay.” But while he isn’t evil, he is desperate. And his physical state is shocking. Actor Abdi is a striking-looking individual and I don’t know anything about the real man behind the role, but pirate Muse is skin and bones brandishing an AK-47. A highly intelligent man trapped in a country and socio-economic situation which has driven him to piracy.
The screenplay by Billy Ray, based on Phillips’ own true-life memoir, offers genuine moments of insight into the geo-political situation in Somalia simply by casting incredible actors and giving them effective things to do which show us (without telling us) who these men are and why they’ve brought Phillips and his crew into this hostage situation.
Greengrass does implement his signature camera style, which sometimes involves a “shaky cam” feel, but mostly evokes a very hand-held style, bringing the cramped nature of the sea vessels to a hard reality. But even if I personally tend to hate the shaky cam revolution that Greengrass seems to have spawned, you can’t deny that all others are just pale imitations of this man’s style. If anyone CAN do shaky cam well, it is Greengrass along with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd. Another issue I have with shaky cam, when used incorrectly, is that it kills one’s orientation and viewers can easily lose a sense of where they are, or where the characters are; what is right and what is left. There is none of that here. I mentioned that the final act of the film is perfect and one of the reasons this is true is that the staging of the intricate final showdown between the pirates, the Navy, and Phillips and crew, is flawless. I always knew where I was and where each ship was; no small feat considering this all takes place on the vast open ocean.
I would also argue that the film eschews a whole lot of Oscar-bait-y elements in order to tell an effective and stripped down tale. The outside world beyond Phillips’ ship is a part of the first and third acts, but in the middle of the film, once pirates board the vessel, never leaves the confines of the enormous but cramped ship. This approach ratchets up the tension incredibly effectively and also helps to focus viewers in on our two leads, Phillips and Muse, who are all we really need to know in order to understand the clash of life situations and cultures that have brought these men to this point.
I also believe Ray’s screenplay manages to sidestep sentimentality in all but possibly the opening scenes. I wrestle with whether I ever needed to see Phillips in a domestic situation at all. Did one scene at the opening depicting him as a husband and father increase my emotional investment in his safety? It is possible, but either way, the opening scene felt awkward and trite when none of the rest of the film comes off that way.
I won’t spoil the ending. Really, I won’t. But I will say that the final scene (not the climax, which is also perfect, but rather the very last sequence) is a remarkable way to end this story and what could have become a bookend scene similar to the weak opening instead brings a powerful emotional close to this iconic story in a way that I never would have thought could work. It does.
I’ve heard some people dismissing Captain Phillips as a gripping thrill ride that is ultimately forgettable. I couldn’t disagree more. I’ll never forget Barkhad Abdi’s face. Muse is a singular screen “villain”. And Hanks brings a humanity and subtle heroism to this role that lifts the film above and beyond the forgettable thrill ride label.
Captain Phillips may actually suffer from being tonally and thematically similar to Gravity and releasing just one week after that remarkable film. But I have room in my heart to love both of these adult-skewing, thrilling, and ultimately dabbling-in-profound films. Captain Phillips, also like Gravity, will work for general audiences as solely a gripping thriller if they aren’t willing to dig a little deeper and see some of the themes that Greengrass and crew have brought forward without bludgeoning us with metaphor. Captain Phillips also calls to memory Zero Dark Thirty, especially with the presence of highly trained Navy Seals in the final acts of both films. But where Zero Dark Thirty brings a more open-ended and even more layered approach to it’s narrative, Captain Phillips is honed and focused and injects it’s insights in small doses of real humanity.
Captain Phillips is entertaining and powerful. It relies heavily on it’s cast and thrives for doing so. Aside from some rocky moments at the beginning of the film, Greengrass and crew are firing on all cylinders with this gripping and insightful thriller. If I were Gene Shalit*, I’d probably close out this review by telling you to get on board with Captain Phillips.
And I’m Out.
*But I’m not Gene Shalit, so I would NEVER end a review saying something like that.