Movie Review: Captain Phillips

Alright I don't normally say this about a movie but hot diddly doo dee dang that was one piece of amazing work. Honestly, after years of watching Pirates of the Caribbean and believing that pirates were as gorgeous as Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and had villains with tentacled mustaches, this is a real eye-opener. Obviously I've heard of Somali pirates before this but I didn't know how they worked together to hijack a ship.

Let's get to it:

Spoiler Alert.

The Maersk Alabama ship sails from Oman to Kenya, carrying food and water for African aid. Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) takes command. On the way there, they get hijacked by 4 Somali pirates after an unsuccessful attempt the day before. They get a hold of the ship and Captain Phillips, but when Muse (Barkhad Abdi), the pirate's captain is captured by the crew in the engine room and held at gunpoint, the pirates and the rest of the crew negotiate a deal whereby they trade captains and give $30,000 to the pirates. However, during the tradeoff, the pirates take the Captain for ransom in the lifeboat and they all head back to the coast of Somalia. The ship reports this to the Navy and they all head to the lifeboat after a few days. However it's difficult to get the Captain back due to the violent nature of the pirates, and they end up retrieving the Captain after several arduous nights. The navy shoots all three pirates simultaneously and Muse is taken into custody. The Captain is rescued and treated in the Navy ship.

Aight, aight, aight, before I get into the nitty gritty details, we shall start with the casting. I love Tom Hanks. I loved him when he was a mentally challenged man in Forrest Gump. I loved him when he had a bromance with a volleyball in Cast Away. I loved him when he was saving Private Ryan. I loved him when he was running around all over Europe trying to save cardinals in Angels & Demons. Tom Hanks is the bomb diggity, and it's quite difficult to be such a great actor and still retain the illusion of the character in the film as opposed to just an actor playing the character. Tom did such a wonderful job I totally forgot that it was Tom Hanks. He was Captain Phillips and he was brilliant. 

Barkhad Abdi, though, was a little off, even though he received a Golden Globe nomination for this debut performance. But wait, as the movie went on, he became better. So much better. At first I wondered why his pal Najee (Faysal Ahmed) didn't just play Muse instead. Faysal was great, he was a better actor than Barkhad. He was amazing considering this was also his debut performance (fun fact, all the 'pirates' were friends in real life. They all lived in the same apartment complex prior to the auditions). However, I realized that Ahmed was a pirate I hated, and not in the 'love to hate' kind of way. I actually hated Najee with a passion. But with Muse, he had a glimpse of a soul. I think that's why Barkhad was chosen instead of Faysal. Barkhad brought this performance that made us understand him as a human being instead of a flat and angry secondary character. Barkhad's performance during the first half was stale and monotonous, but he definitely stepped his game up in the second half.

With all that said and done, I'm not a big fan of Paul Greengrass' style of filming. It was a mix between handheld and steady. The result? An irritating way of seeing a wonderful movie. The only thing that made me angry was the cinematography. Like, oh my god he's talking but Tom Hanks' shoulder is covering his entire dialogue what the actual fuck is this. How did this get into the final cut without anyone going, "hey maybe we should pick the shot sans shoulder." No? Nobody? I need to be on that team. I need to see Barkhad Abdi's monologue without Tom Hanks' magnificent shoulder in the way.

What I loved most though, was the way Muse leaked bits and pieces of his life so we could gain an understanding of his nondescript life. He just wanted a better life and dreamed of going to America and drive a nice car and live the American Dream. Oh god I'm tearing up. Muse you little adorable creature you just wanted a nice life.

Captain Phillips: There's got to be something other than being a fisherman or kidnapping people.

Muse: Maybe in America. Maybe in America. 

Not gonna lie, I teared up a little. Teared up in my heart. 

But Captain Phillips received such an irritatingly unsympathetic treatment back on board that I returned to my state of rage. I understand that the first aid woman was supposed to be professional but she treated the Captain like a robot. For heaven's sake this man's been through a lot and your monotonous, unsympathetic voice is clearly making him cry you cold-hearted bitch. Then at the end she goes, "everything's going to be okay." THAT'S WHAT MUSE KEPT TELLING THE CAPTAIN, oh my goodness I have so many emotions from watching this film. I can't. I literally cannot continue this review lest I kill myself in the process from over-feeling.

I give this movie a 9/10. I must go before I cry.