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Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, and Road to Perdition showed what he is truly capable of when delivered a strong script and complex character. Captain Phillips is the next great performance in his impressive and already distinguished resume, and it will likely earn him his third Best Actor Oscar, putting him in stratospheric territory with Daniel Day-Lewis, Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, and Jack Nicholson. He deserves it. The only hiccup in this plan might be his role as Walt Disney in December's Saving Mr. Banks. His duplicitous acting year may tear voters between two great roles, in turn sabotaging his chances of winning one. We will see. The only legitimate contender might be Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave. Hanks is a lock for a nomination.
On a side note, Hanks recently divulged that he has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and he feels it was likely brought on by the pressures of constant weight adjustment for roles. It's clearly unhealthy to go through so many weight changes throughout a lifetime, and so many great actors and actresses do it regularly to show a more picture perfect portrayal of the character. It makes you wonder how many of our other stars are suffering health complications behind the scenes because of the increasing demands of bulking up and slimming down. It will be interesting to learn more about this over time.
Captain Phillips (spoiler alert!) is a commercial cargo transport captain and was taking the Maersk Alabama through dangerous waters off the Horn of Africa on a routine route from Oman to Kenya in 2009 when he was captured by four teenage Somali pirates. A series of events orchestrated in part by Phillips led to the safety of his crew and his eventual rescue a few days later, but the news made headlines at the time more for the valor of the Navy SEAL's than the bravery of Phillips himself. This is the story of what Phillips had to endure and how his decisions helped save himself and the men under his command.
A recent article claims that piracy in the Indian Ocean off the coast costs the commercial global economy about $18 billion per year in lost cargo or increased insurance premiums. My question is: why don't they carry weapons in a strong box? Throughout the intense boarding scene, I kept thinking "how easy would it be to keep pirates off your ship if you had a gun? Even a pistol?" Maersk may have the answer, but one thing is for sure, the film is causing buzz from two different camps. Phillips has gone on record as saying that the film is more or less an accurate account of what happened. Maersk on the other hand, who have been sued for $50 million by 9 of the crew members saying that the route shouldn't have been taken and that they were in unnecessary risk, said through their lawyer that "Forrest Gump was also a really good movie starring Tom Hanks, but like Captain Phillips, it was highly fictionalized." Although Phillips isn't implicated in the lawsuit, some of his crew hold him responsible for what happened saying he didn't follow orders as he should have. Whatever the case, it's a terrific story of courage, cultural extremism, and survival.
Paul Greengrass is known for his realistic style in films like United 93, and Bloody Sunday, but shows his action chops in 2/3 of the Bourne trilogy (Damon, not Renner) and the underexposed Green Zone. The film was written by Billy Ray with input from Rich Phillips and his memoir from the harrowing events. It's almost a documentary with some flair, and that's what makes it such a compelling and suspenseful film.
We begin with dual preparations. Two sides of the globe which may as well be on other planets. Hanks' Phillips is packing, checking emails, and doing paperwork in preparation for his upcoming trip in his comfortable Vermont home with his wife. Meanwhile, Muse is trying to get sleep on a dirt floor in a hut in the sweltering heat in Somalia when he is awoken by warlords sending him out to sea to bring them back money. This is the real beauty of the film. The diametrical different universes that the two opposing forces live in. The civilized West, and the broken and impoverished East. OK, maybe the analogies are a stretch, but Greengrass does a wonderful job of showcasing the differences. The pirates aren't just a rag-tag band of bad guys. They are given a glimmer of personality and we can empathize with their hopeless situation in life. They are also given a bit of humanity as the film progresses, which clearly added to the emotional charge.
As the ship goes through its pre-launch checks in port, we are comforted by Phillips' professionalism, but also given a peek into the life of a captain. It is captured with just enough detail that we see that his men love and respect their captain, but there is a sort of underlying feeling of annoyance to the protocols and procedures as viewed by the union men. They want to do their jobs and then sit and drink coffee and aren't interested in doing anymore than they have to, and that adds to the suspense when the emergency drill become reality. Phillips finds that his crew really come together in time of crisis, and it's fun to watch the high stakes game of cat and mouse play out on the massive freighter. In the end though, the Somalis escape in a lifeboat with a prized cargo (Phillips), and it's up to the US Navy to rescue him.
The Somali pirates are unknowns, and were kept segregated from the rest of the cast until it was time for them to meet, which really amped up the authenticity. Their pivotal There is buzz developing for Barkhad Abdi, who plays the pirate in charge, and he is frightening as a very contemplative young man, but unpredictable. He uses his thousand-mile stare in such a natural way that he is really an intimidating foe.
It's really a three part film that picks up speed early and never really shuts down until the end, and even then, as an audience, you are in awe of the spectacle that you just saw. Act one is setting the table, act two is the confrontation, and act three is the resolution. All masterfully done in what all in all is the best film of 2013 so far. I predicted this months ago, but after viewing Captain Phillips, Hanks wins Best Actor and it wins Best Picture.
The final ten minutes may be some of the greatest emotional acting I have ever seen, not just this year, but ever. If Tom Hanks wins it is because of his single final scene in the movie. Absolutely amazing. Hanks takes you inside of his mind and body and you experience all of the shock, grief, fear, pain, and sadness all at once in an overwhelming barrage of emotion. It may be the five to ten minutes that define his career one hundred years from now.
Captain Phillips is intense, but done so well that you don't want to look away. There are no tricks played by the director in lulling us into complacency and then shocking us back to reality with a jump. Greengrass is too professional for that. It's full-steam ahead realism. The best film of 2013. 10/10.
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