Captain Philips

SYNOPSIS When his ship is threatened by pirates, the captain must try to defend it and the lives of his crew. When we first see the pirate skiffs closing in on captain Richard Philips’ (Tom Hanks) ship we get a beautiful shot of the vessel alone in an empty ocean, highlightig just how stranded they really are. This lonely, isolated, feeling is kept up throughout the film and makes for nail-biting tension. Director Paul Greengrass (who likes the ‘two sides to every story’ approach) shows us the pirates, led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi) in their preparations to go “fishing”. By giving the characters on both sides equal depth Greengrass avoids any one-dimensional caricatures, the Somali Pirates are all fleshed-out with their own individual traits and motivations. This allows the director to explore deeper political issues in the story without getting onto a soapbox or leaning to one side or another. In fact this is done so skilfully that amongst all the tension and action you might not even be aware of it until you think back on the film later. Given that this is, at its heart, a story about people the two most critical performances are Hank’s and Abdi’s. Hank’s gives a great performance as someone desperately trying to keep a grip on a situation that is rapidly spiralling out of control. Much of the attention has, however, been focused on the career debut of Barkad. His arresting portrayal of a man who is trying to keep control, not only over his hostages, but his own unruly crew, even as his bosses put on the pressure for profit, is one of the film’s central pillars. In fact it’s not too much to say that he somewhat overshadows Hanks - which is saying something for a start. The film is a little slow in getting started but once it does it keeps going at a relentless pace without feeling rushed or getting lost. FINAL VERDICT 8/10 both thought-provoking and nerve shredding, this film grips and does not let go