Captain Phillips

2013

PG-13

Produced by: Scott Rudin, Michael DeLuca, Dana Brunetti

Directed by: Paul Greengrass

Written by: Billy Ray

Starring: Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Barkhad Abdi

Scott Rudin Productions

4.86/5 Stars

Consensus: Tense and gripping, Captain Phillips exhibits incredible performances that made the film better than it would have been with a less capable cast.

Plot: A freight carrier traveling around the cape of Africa is attacked by Somali pirates.

Directing: Greengrass kept the intensity and hostility of the film at all times and successfully communicated several important factors to us with little screen time. In particular Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) was given excellent character development, such as his relationship with his family. Greengrass also drew effective parallels between Captain Phillips and Muse (Barkhad Abdi) while still noting their significant differences. This was all done with little camera time, and was not so obvious it hit you over the head. *****

Acting: Tom Hanks gives the performance of his career in this film (and that’s saying quite a bit all things considering.) The last five minutes of the film, which depict him after being rescued, contained some of the rawest and finest acting the industry has to offer. Indeed the made the film infinitely more worthwhile and successful than it otherwise would have been. Hanks’ ability to take us into the mind of the freight captain and his miserable situation was impressive and memorable. Barkhad Abdi also gives a breakout performance in his role as a pirate captain. The acting in this film was the most impressive aspect to it and managed to carry the narrative to an even more intense level than the film was at already. *****

Editing: The editing added to the intensity of the narrative, the rapid cuts between U.S. Navy SEALS and the pirates made the film as aggressive and nail biting as it was. *****

Art Direction: The ship, Navy SEAL boats, and shots of Somali all worked well together and made the film as effective as it was, nothing stood out so much as to be breath taking, but again the art direction worked well to compliment the rest of the film and should be considered successful for this reason. *****

Cinematography: The lack of “shake-cam” was greatly appreciated. The film gives strong evidence for the ability to have gorgeous sweeping shots and still create an intense and gripping story. Sweeping ocean shots coupled with intense close ups made the cinematography as solid as it was. Overall it was great and well done, but not so exceptional as to stand out and merit great praise. It worked great with the film, but was not flooring. ****

Screenplay: The film boldly chose to eliminate the use of subtitles for scenes spoken in a foreign language and the effect had both negative and positive elements. One positive element was the brilliance of the pantomime on behalf of the actors. The film intelligently depicted what was happening without having to explain too much. Showing and not telling is a great technique, but this also alienated us from some of the characters. While this is both a pro and a con, it would have been nice to see more clear motives as to why the pirates went to the extremes that they did. *****

CGI/Special Effects: The storm CGI was effective and looked realistic. It wasn’t even noticeably CGI and fit perfectly within the world that was created. It furthered the plot rather than being the reason that the plot was constructed, which is a more than justified reason to incorporate this element into a film. *****