There is something about Tom Hanks that I've always loved as a movie-watcher. I remember very vividly seeing movie after movie with him in it during my childhood. It almost seemed like he was the only male actor there was (with the exception of the "Ghostbusters" cast and Bruce Willis). I would sit with my Dad and watch movies like "Turner and Hooch", "The Money Pit", "Big", and "A League of Their Own". There was something about his demeanor that resonated with me and made me feel almost like home. He is the closest our generation has to a Jimmy Stewart and more than likely the closest we will ever get. Hanks has always found a way to take the stereotypical "crowd-pleasing" and "accessible" Hollywood film and inject it with a sense of life that is not typical. He has made us cry in more films than probably any other actor. He hits us on a different nerve than most. While an actor like Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman or Javier Bardiem can completely change themselves into a character, Hanks seems to comfort the audience more than impress them. Lewis might completely lose himself in a character but Hanks stays in front of it. This is not a detriment to him. It has been one of his most redeeming qualities. When Hanks cries, he makes us cry because we feel that a family-member is hurting. We laugh with him. We cry with him. We grieve with him. In "Captain Phillips" we stand next to him as he protects his ship and his crew-men from Somali pirates. We want to see him get off the boat safely although we are never quite sure if it will happen. Hanks delivers his best and most engrossing performance since "Forrest Gump" in what might be director Paul Greengrass's masterpiece.
Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) pilots his container ship filled with cargo, the Maersk Alabama, from en route to Kenya. Reports of Somali pirate attacks in the area have kept him and his crew on watch. His superiors keep reassuring Phillips and his crewmates that the ship's firehouse defense will protect them from any attackers. Soon enough, a small craft filled with Somali's attempts to board the Alabama. Armed with weapons and the "learned from TV" charisma of their leader Muse (Barkhad Abdi), Phillips must keep his crew safe from the attackers.
The filming style of Greengrass has been parodied almost to eye-rolling amounts. Yes, his cameras tend to shake. The fight sequences in his "Bourne" series were equal parts adrenaline-pumping and confusing. You were excited but damned if you knew what just happened on screen. Greengrass's hand-held camera style is prevalent throughout "Captain Phillips" but it feels nature. The film takes place almost entirely on the water. Any motion-sickness (or sea-sickness) almost seems like a nature event. You are supposed to feel uneasy. You are supposed to be disoriented. Greengrass's filmmaking seems a nature fit for "Captain Phillips". It results in a film that is tense and leaves the viewers as uncertain about the next event as the captain and his crew. While his "Bourne" films might be championed for their action scenes and his "United 93" (unseen by me) often called "the best movie you only want to see one time), "Captain Phillips" finds a happy medium between the two. It is intense but entirely watchable. It will more than likely go down likely go down as his best film.
Hanks has been an actor with very few slip-ups. He has been always dependable if not entirely surprising. Everything he has made since "Forrest Gump" has felt mostly "safe". This is not to say his performances in movies like "Saving Private Ryan", "The Green Mile" or "Cast Away" were bad. They were simply workman-like. Hanks showed up and did the job well. Here, Hanks is given so much more to do than he has had since his early 90s "Look what I can do!"-phase. While his Irish accent may flutter a bit, our care and concern for him never falters. The movie lives and dies by him. He is acting alongside the actors playing Somali pirates who, understandably, are distant and uninviting. His crew spends almost the entire film hidden away while Phillips deals with the pirates in clever and not always successful ways. A lesser actor would have made this felt like an action movie. Hanks makes it feel like a suspense film. He is not protecting the cargo or the money on the ship. He is protecting the people hidden at the bottom of the ship. Put any other actor in his place and it would have felt unbelievable and "Hollywood". Hanks, not known for being in films that are suspenseful (the more we forget "The Da Vinci Code" the better) was the perfect man for this job. He takes Greengrass's talent and brings a human element to the suspense.
Much will be said about the performance of Barkhad Abdi's performance as the "villain" Muse. Abdi is a newcomer to film and we more than likely won't be seeing him in many films. Not many roles call for tall, skinny Somali men. That said, Abdi is incredible. He blends the intense and almost maniac nature of Abdi with the human element that is buried beneath the gun in front of him. We see him alternate between these two sides effortlessly and that almost makes him more scary. We don't know if he is going to try to charm Phillips or smash his head against a wall. He is a great find and will be long remembered for this role.
Much of the suspense of a "true life story" is wasted because you may already know the outcome. The less known about the actual hijacking of the Alabama, the better. While the trailer gives away far too much of the film (one of many horrible elements in today's filmmaking), the journey is still intense and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. They are as uncertain about the outcome as Phillips is. The film rarely lets up and audiences will eat up every moment. In a year of so little action and suspense (when "Fast 6" is the most respected action film, you are having a bad year), "Captain Phillips" is one of the best films of the year and arguably the most intense movie we will see.
No comments:
Post a Comment