Captain Phillips. Rated M
(mature
themes and violence). 134 minutes. Directed by Paul
Greengrass. Screenplay by Billy Ray, based on A
Captain's Duty by Richard Phillips.
Verdict:
It might have been wiser to sail with the pack.
If
it’s light and breezy distraction you’re after, then bypass this uptight and
intense thriller about cargo ship Captain Richard
Phillips (Tom Hanks) and his unfortunate crew as they battle for survival
against a band of marauding Somalian pirates, led by the rather optimistically
named Muse (Barkhad Abdi).
Phillips’s autobiographical account is embroiled in controversy, with
many of the crew involved in legal action against the ship’s owner – the Maersk
Line – for what they claim was dereliction of duty. The only nod to Phillips’
alleged lapse of judgment is the pirates discovering his ship is charting a
course closer to the Somalian coastline than the rest of the vessels all
sailing the same route – a fact that apparently informed their decision to
attack it.
Anyone involved in primary industry knows the most direct trade route is
the most desirable, and with faith in the water cannons onboard used to sink
rickety old pirate boats, some token security drills and rusty old padlocks,
Phillips takes his chances. Whether you blame him will depend on how much you
end up admiring the tenacity of the opportunistic Somalians, for who Ray’s (The
Hunger Games, Flightplan) screenplay provides millions of dollars worth of
motivation.
Greengrass’s
(Green Zone, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93, The Bourne Supremacy) and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd’s (Green Zone, The
Hurt Locker, United 93) hand-held camera in confined spaces technique comes to
the fore early and never lets up. The result is a powerful, if relentless,
study of motivation, brilliantly edited by
Christopher Rouse (Green Zone, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93, The
Bourne Supremacy).
This
review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.
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