Captain Phillips

3 ½ pipes out of 4

Tom Hanks is back in true form with his brilliant portrayal of cargo freighter captain Phillips whose ship is taken over by pirates. Jumping right into the controversy, yes there probably are many inaccuracies and maybe Phillips was not as heroic as he is portrayed in the film but that does not take away from the film itself. As a disclaimer in every movie similar to Captain Phillips, they state that they are BASED on true events. They do not say that it is all true; they simply take the idea of the events and they hollywoodize it. If Paul Greengrass had portrayed the actual events of the pirate hijacking, he wouldn’t have a very interesting film. With what he did portray, he has an extremely interesting film. Tom Hanks plays the titular character and is the biggest name in the film rightfully deserving the acclaim that is coming his way but as the Golden Globes showed, () has a shocking break out role as the Somali Pirate Captain. What Greengrass does with the portrayal or the Somali pirates completely took me by surprise. He still shows them as the main villains of the movie but he shows how they got to the position that they are in and almost makes us feel sorry for them, almost. This depiction of Somali Pirates may change the mind of many on how they are perceived; it certainly has changed my view. The true meat of the film doesn’t come until the last 45 to 30 minutes when Hanks is trapped in the small rescue dingy with the pirates in close quarters. The best acting that I have ever seen comes from Hanks in the final three minutes of the film. It is compelling and truly heartbreaking. Another fantastic film created by director Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks.