Captain Phillips
2013
****
Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, Catherine Keener, Michael Chernu, Yul Vazquez
After the underwhelming Green Zone, Paul Greengrass returns to what he's best at. As with the excellent Bloody Sunday and United 93, he takes a real-life scenario and uses his directorial skills to turn it into a riveting nailbiter. The events here are set in April 2009 when Maersk Alabama, an American container ship helmed by Captain Richard Phillips, was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Billy Ray's script is based on the book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea (by Richard Phillips and Stephan Talty) but it doesn't tell a traditional good guys vs. bad guys story. The pirates also get their backstory which establishes the motivation for their desperate mission. Tom Hanks and the newcomer Barkhad Abdi give very strong performances.
