Opening Night Gala - short review - CAPTAIN PHILLIPS by Paul Greengrass

With his latest work, Greengrass takes his usual genuine and urgent brand of intensity to the high seas, where his trademark disorienting yet focused camerawork and frantic editing techniques seem particularly suited. This film is based on the true story of Richard Phillips, the captain of a US container ship hijacked off the coast of Somalia by a crew of Somali pirates in 2009. The sharp change in atmosphere from exciting to claustrophobic as the film’s action shifts from the container ship to the lifeboat is arguably exhausting. However, one cannot help but admire Greengrass for avoiding the usual clichéd observations and cinematic structuring in bringing this story and the heavy themes and cultural contexts that come with it to the screen. In the end, Captain Phillips is a story of an American hero who is not necessarily an adventurer but is forced to become one through frightening developments, and Tom Hanks brings that man to life in a forceful way. Newcomer Barkhad Abdi in his role as the leader of the pirates is equally as magnetic, and the two’s exchanges are truly powerful in their understated way.