Review: 'Captain Phillips'

Paul Greengrass, the director of 'Captain Phillips', is undoubtedly a stickler for authenticity. Almost every one of his movies are as realistic-looking as they can be. I remember watching 'United 93' (2006) for the first time, and completely forgetting that I was watching a movie. As far as I could tell, it was pretty darn believable as to what possibly did happen that day on 9/11. There's a lot of believability in this new film as well, just not quite as much as I hoped. But only just.

Based on a true story, in 2009: On the East coast of Africa, Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), sails his cargo ship into open Somalian waters, despite warnings of piracy. The ship is eventually taken over and turns into a battle/game of wits and will against these adversaries.

Other than Tom Hank's brilliant performance, which is his best performance since 'Cast Away' I think, half of my praise goes to the actors portraying the pirates. To my understanding, most of them had never acted a day in their lives before. And here, they deliver absolute convincing performances. Barkhad Abdi particularly, who plays the lead pirate, gives a conniving, snake-like performance here that's worthy of an Oscar nomination.

As I mentioned before briefly, the authenticity is definitely present in this movie, yet artistic licensing can be sniffed out occasionally here-and-there. And if there's one major thing I would have to criticize deeply about this film, it would be the musical score selected for one pivotal scene. The music is a specific track that is taken (or borrowed?) directly from the soundtrack of 'United 93'. Call it what you will, but that felt a bit lazy to me of the director and composer, and it kind of bothered me. It made this movie less greater than it was aiming to be. I won't mention what the scene is, but I will say it's a pretty big one.

Despite some set-backs and certain technical choices in the final editing/mixing that were made, 'Captain Phillips' has still turned out to be an emotional, powerful film with an equal amount of pleasant surprises.

My rating: 3.5 / 4