Captain Phillips: Movie Review

In 2009, Captain Richard Phillips and his crew, were overtaken by Somali pirates, in what was the first American ship hijacking in two hundred years.  The new film from director Paul Greengrass, titled “Captain Phillips” is based on that event.  Tom Hanks will most likely get award attention for his portrayal of the brave captain, it’s the unknown cast that make up the Somali pirates which really stands out.

At the start of “Captain Phillips” Richard Phillips (Hanks) is being driven to the port by his wife Andrea (Catherine Keener). The car ride is mostly silent, and we can tell that there is the fear of something possibly going wrong during Richard’s trip.  From the moment he steps onto the MV Maersk Alabama, Captain Phillips checks every the ship thoroughly,  preparing for the worst.  He even runs drills with the crew so they would be ready if something was to happen.

Even with all the preparation, a group of armed Somali pirates still managed to find a weakness in the ship’s defenses and made it on board.  With a majority of the crew hiding in the ship’s engine room, Captain Phillips and a couple of crew members were left to deal with four hostiles.  There is the leader Elmi (Mahat M. Ali), Najee (Faysal Ahmed), Bilal (Barkhad Abdirahman), and Muse (Barkhad Abdi).

Hanks does a fantastic job showing us how Captain Phillips was able to maintain his cool and limit the amount of harm that would come to his crew.  He handled the pirates the best way he could, while being filled with fear.  The breakthrough performance comes from Mahat M. Ali who deserves to at least be nominated for a best actor supporting role.  He is just fantastic.  For a man who has never acted professionally before being cast in “Captain Phillips” he sure does an amazing job holding his own up against the seasoned Hanks. 

Greengrass, feels a bit more controlled here compared to his work in “Bourne” and “Green Zone” and that is a good thing.  This is probably the best screenplay written by  Billy Ray, who’s previous efforts like “State of Play”, “Flightplan”, and “The Hunger Games” were a mixed bag.  

“Captain Phillips” is definitely worth checking out.

By: Marc Ferman