On board with Captain Phillips you’ll find yourself in an ocean of danger, thrill and courage.
In a typically nuanced performance, one of America’s most celebrated actors, Tom Hanks goes from a stubborn Captain Richard Phillips, who runs a tight ship to a quick-thinking leader under fire. The film’s glory is aided by superb acting from both Tom Hanks and newcomer Barkhad Abdi (who plays the role of the Somali pirate Abduwali Muse).
Muse is a dangerous man who won’t hesitate in taking a life, demonstrated in a scene when he kills a fellow pirate for calling him skinny. With his protruding teeth, sunken eyes, and bony physique, Abdi matches the look of a malnourished man from an impoverished background, and we sense that he tries to compensate for this with bravery on sea waters.
After a cat-and-mouse game where Phillips initially dodges the pirate skiffs with intelligent thinking, Muse and his three other crew members finally board the containership, MV Maersk Alabama. Once on board, they are frustrated by the continuingly clever tactics of Captain Phillips, who has the majority of his crew hide in the engine room below deck. To make matters worse for Muse, the crew cuts the ship’s power so that the pirates are left exploring in the darkness.
It is evident that Hanks has fantastic chemistry with the Somali-American actor Barkhad Abdi. Although both characters are on opposite ends of the situation, the two leaders share a subtle empathy, which can be felt due to the cleverly flowing narrative.
Perhaps the weakest aspect of Captain Phillips is that the motivations of the pirates are unexplored. In one scene, Muse boasts about his successful piracy of a Greek ship where the payday was in the millions and Phillips is startled because Muse doesn’t look like a wealthy person. Though it is quickly established that Muse and his fellow pirates are fishermen under the iron grip of a Somali drug lord, beyond that, the film misses an opportunity to examine their characters.
With minor flaws in detailing, Captain Phillips probably has some of the best performances of the year and can be considered a lock-in for Academy Award nominations. Paul Greengrass is at the top of his game and Captain Phillips is an example of how to create ‘edge-of-your-seat’ tension without resorting to gratuitous violence. With skillful pacing and slick visuals, courtesy of cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker), Greengrass gradually increases the pressure gauge until the climactic final 30 minutes reach a delightful fever pitch. Ultimately, Captain Phillips may leave the viewers as drained as its characters.
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Noman Ansari is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to several publications. He tweets @Pugnate
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, December 15th, 2013.
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Read what you just said........... that was a pretty fair comment.