Review of Captain Phillips (2013) by Neil R — 21 Nov 2015

Deft and meticulous direction again from master craftsman Paul Greengrass who blew me away with 'United 93', and a sterling performance from Tom Hanks that had me in tears at the end. However, the film lacks depth of characterisation, interest in the dialogue and makes the most tentative and inchoate forays into a critique on poverty and globalisation which could have been so much more interesting.

The Somali actors are absolutely brilliant but more could have been done to flesh out their real life dilemmas, if about 20 minutes of technical footage of guys radioing each other importantly had been cut.

Greengrass' least impressive film of the five I've seen, but definitely worth watching for the Christlike self-sacrifices made by Phillips and the well-played hostage drama that unfolds.