Based on real life events of 2009, the film captures, literally, a ship of transported goods headed to Somali run by Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) by enemy pirates. The leader, Muse (Barkhad Abdi) pronounced “Mew-say” demands a ten million dollar ransom after declaring “I’m the captain now.”
And this is when the film becomes about simple, married, Vermont man (Hanks) versus the Somalis. Hank’s wife is played by Kathleen Keener. The problem with this film is Tom Hanks is not the Tom Hanks we’ve come to love. Has there ever been a Tom Hanks movie you didn’t adore? This might be it. His Captain Phillips isn’t necessarily a likable captain or an unlikeable one. He’s just got about as much personality as a cardboard box, so we don’t really care about our hero who never rises to the occasion that would make us want to care! And that’s interesting since director Paul Greengrass is the King of the “Bourne” films where we adore our Jason Bourne.
In the end, we come to feel more for Muse, an anorexic black actor with taunt cheekbones and haunted eyes, who struggles for survival in a land where survival is all he’s got. He’s ultimately a victim, too. There’s one moment when we think Tom Hanks is going to die and he wins us over back to him.
But Greengrass has another problem. He needs to get a grip on his camera, because ten minutes into the film we feel seasick from his tight shots which make it impossible for us to focus and turn us nauseated. And that’s a long way to spend two and a half hours. ♚ ♛