Captain Phillips (FILM REVIEW)
Captain Phillips
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Somali Pirates Hold Captain Hostage in Navy SEAL Rescue Thriller
On April 9, 2009, the Maersk
Alabama, an American container ship headed for Mombasa, Kenya,
was hijacked on the high seas in an area that had become very popular with Somali
pirates preying on international commerce. Despite having recently practiced
evasive maneuvers in the event of just such an attack, the vessel’s 20-man crew’s
flare gun and fire hoses proved no match for the fearless, heavily-armed quartet
high on an herbal stimulant called chat.
After climbing aboard, the drug-emboldened
buccaneers abandoned the idea of commandeering the cumbersome, 500+ foot-long
craft carrying 17,000 metric tons of cargo, since all they were really after
was a multimillion-dollar ransom. Instead, they opted to take Captain Richard
Phillips (Tom Hanks) hostage on one of his own lifeboats as a very valuable bargaining
chip.
However, when their demands fell on
deaf ears, a standoff ensued in the middle of the ocean. Soon, a destroyer stationed
near the Gulf of Aden, the USS Bainbridge, was
dispatched to the scene, and its Captain, Frank Castellano (Yul Vasquez),
feigned negotiating while simultaneously securing permission from President
Obama to hatch a daring rescue plan.
Directed
by Paul Greengrass (United 93), Captain Phillips is certain to invite
comparison to the somewhat similarly-plotted Zero Dark Thirty, given how both
recount a real-life mission mounted by a crack team of Navy SEALs. The
difference, however, is that this adventure amounts to little more than a
high-anxiety orgy of worry unfolding from the perspective of the imperiled kidnap
victim, while the relatively-cerebral Zero Dark Thirty devoted most of its
attention to delineating the intricate details involved in the complicated manhunt
for Osama bin Laden.
Curiously, this movie repeatedly
makes the presumably politically-correct point of reminding us that these
madmen are not Muslim terrorists, but without offering much of a hint as to
their motivations besides money. Nevertheless, Tom Hanks does bring his A-game
here, even if he’s cooped-up in close quarters acting opposite a B-support cast
(Barkhad Abdirahaman, Mahat M. Ali, Barkhad Abdi and
Faysal Ahmed) for the
bulk of the picture.
Unfortunately, his one-note abductors
are painted as soulless, primitive natives right out of a typical Tarzan flick.
Sure, the bloodlust payoff is bigger when the bad guys are the frightening
embodiment of pure evil with no redeeming qualities. Yet, this production
would’ve benefited immeasurably from just a little development of the villains’
characters.
Shades
of Cast Away (2000), with Tom Hanks being tortured by sadists as opposed to talking
to a volleyball for over an hour while waiting for the cavalry to arrive.
Very Good
(3 stars)
PG-13 for intense violence, sustained terror, bloody images
and drug abuse In English and
Somali with subtitles
Running time: 134 minutes
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
To see a trailer for Captain
Phillips, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wc1l1DW6IE
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