Dramatising the real-life hijacking of an American freighter by Somali pirates, Captain Phillips
sees docudrama master Paul Greengrass occupying safe creative waters.
Of his previous work, there’s a particularly close resemblance (in both
style and structure) to 2006’s United 93 – another
moment-by-moment recreation of recent history that balanced macro
geopolitics with close-framed, claustrophobic terror.
But where the earlier film presented a fated collective, the title of Captain Phillips
indicates a more conventional focus on a single, heroic individual –
making the lead character’s casting as vital to the picture’s success as
Billy Ray’s taut screenplay and the director’s kinetic flair.
Thankfully, a bearded and Bostonian Tom Hanks has rarely been better,
his everyman persona perfectly suited to the material and his escalating
desperation reaching unbearable levels at the climax. Indeed, the
closing scene’s visceral impact is so pronounced that the film’s less
successful aspects (in particular, some unsubtle attempts at
socioeconomic commentary) retreat from mind like backwash from a hull.
Out Fri 18th October
No comments:
Post a Comment