Film Review -- Captain Phillips

This Paul Greengrass-directed thriller stars Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi. Based on real events, it tells the story of Richard Phillips (Hanks), a merchant mariner whose cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, is taken hostage by Somali pirates on April 8, 2009. Let by Abduwhali Muse (Abdi), the four pirates are unsuccessful in seizing the ship, so they kidnap Captain Phillips and hold him hostage in one of the Alabama's lifeboats, hoping to reach the coast of Somalia before the Navy stops them. I will start by saying this: the film -- as a film -- is spectacular. Even though these events are very recent, and the outcome easily remembered, the film manages to be tense practically from the moment it begins to the moment it ends. It is beautifully directed, acted, written, edited, etc. However, the story that it tells is extremely one-sided. The good-vs.-evil distinction is very evident, and there is no grey area: Captain Phillips is good and heroic, and the pirates are bad and evil. No matter how much their actions fall under the "despicable" category, I did feel sorry for the pirates throughout most of the film. There is a scene towards the beginning that depicts their living conditions in Somalia, and it is very sad to see. I remembered this scene when Captain Phillips, in the lifeboat, asks Muse, "Isn't there more to life than fishing and kidnapping?", and Muse replies, "Maybe in America, Irish. Maybe in America." What chance in life do these pirates have, living in poverty in Somalia? The "American Dream" lies so far beyond their realm of existence that piracy, to them, seems like one of the only ways to escape the destitution that is their reality. Thus, I really wish the film had shown more of the pirates' perspective. Theirs is a very sad story that also deserves to be told. But, being an American feature, the filmmakers chose to tell it from Captain Phillips' viewpoint, and that was their choice. Although I wish its final narrative had been different, the film presented to me, purely as a piece of storytelling and of filmmaking, is fantastic.

Should you see it: Yes
Grade: B+