It’s fair to say the film landscape has become dreadfully
cluttered with movies featuring the line “based on a true story” over the past
few years. In fact, I’ve recently noticed fewer films which lack those dreaded
words than films that do, something that never ceases to depress me as
Hollywood begins to give up on imagination in favour of unnecessary sequels and
real-life pictures. But Captain Phillips is something different; it’s a film
that truly demonstrates just how brilliant a movie can be. Even when it’s based
on a true story.
Captain Phillips sets
itself in 2009, as Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), captain of the Maersk
Alabama, sets sail for Kenya laden
with 17000 metric tons of cargo and twenty crew members. It’s not long before
the inevitability of the “true story” sets in and the ship is hijacked by four Somali
Pirates, led by the unsettling villainous Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi). Hanks is superb in the title role, but it’s Abdi who
really steals the show as Muse, creating a character we can both empathize with
and despise at the same time. The film is highly commendable for not just
presenting these pirates as a series of foreign cardboard cutouts; taking
screen time to flesh out their characters and even making the audience feel for
their difficult predicaments. 
What’s
easily the best thing about Captain Phillips is its intensity, particularly
towards the closing stages of the film. As the movie progresses, the screens
shift from the vast establishing shots filling the exposition to confined, claustrophobic
spaces and shaky camerawork, a technique expertly used to present the mounting desperation
of the situation. It’s full of sounds too; the shouts of the Somalis; cries of
pain and sprays of bullets build an atmospheric crescendo, enhanced by John Murphy’s
powerful score (adored by myself for his work of the Kick-Ass soundtrack). A blockbuster budgets of $55 million has been wisely spend as the film is luxuriously shot, particularly during the early stages with sweeping views of the ocean and impressive establishing shots. The script is also intelligently written, a rare asset for most major Hollywood productions, and Paul Greengrass’s direction is excellent. The script is perhaps guilty of becoming too overblown during the finale, but overall it sustains the viewer’s attention consistently throughout the movie.
It’s almost unheard of for a Hollywood biopic (if one can call it that) to be intelligent, well acted and entertaining all at once, but Captain Philips has it all. It’s a superb film that does full justice to a draw-dropping tale, wearing its “based on a true story” tag with pride and providing over two hours of gripping entertainment.
9/10
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