CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Cast: Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Max Martini, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahad M. Ali
Director: Paul Greengrass
Running time: 134 mins
Paul Greengrass continues his cinematic career in supreme style with another expertly crafted dramatic feature in “Captain Phillips” - once more playing like a voyeuristic documentary piece.Based on an actual incident in 2009, the film has Tom Hanks in the title role, with a confident, subtle performance expertly unravelling the gradual horror of the situation Phillips finds himself in, at the hands of merciless Sumali pirates.
As the film opened however, my heart sank slightly and I felt a sense of looming disappointment, as Phillips (Hanks) and his wife Andrea (Catherine Keener) drive off together for him to catch a flight. The in-car dialogue is depressingly lax – a poorly written and ill-conceived back-story set-up to show him as a caring loving family man. It’s almost as if Greengrass had said to the writer Billy Ray "this scene isn’t my thing – why don’t you script and direct it, and leave the rest of the film – the important stuff – to me”. Equally, the introductory material showing the pirates at ‘home’ is under-calculated with inferior writing - and ultimately superlative to the narrative.
Contemporary sea piracy is of course still a very real and serious danger in some parts of the world, and this film attempts, to a degree, to humanise the Sumali nautical ne’er-do-wells who took control of the vessel from under the control of Captain Phillips, without remotely excusing their actions, which was clearly not an easy balance to strike.
As with "United 93," Greengrass completes his cast with many unfamiliar faces – and he manages to persuade excellent performances from Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed and Mahad M. Ali as the armed Sumalians. Playing the role of Muse, the leader of the team of four who end up actually taking over the ship, a huge cargo barge, Abdi is physically bereft of any prowess but he more than makes up for his lack of weight with rage and frustration. It’s both astonishing but nevertheless terrifyingly realistic, how a quartet of such slight, malnourished individuals manage to not only get aboard such an emormous vessel but also seize control in such a short space of time. Some familiar faces show up as the crew of the Maersk Alabama, but Greengrass correctly ensures no time is spent on irrelevances such as conventional character building.
Mention must also be made of the incredibly high level of technical acuity on display here from the people involved on the production side. The sheer scale of the logistics in what he (Greengrass) and they stage in this film is nothing short of breathtaking - from the US military teams involved in the attempt to rescue Phillips and indeed in the hijacking itself.
As always with Paul Greengrass – he builds an almost unbearable amount of tension – even if, as here, the viewer may be aware of the eventual outcome. Hanks is exceptional towards the conclusion, showing the way shock sets in to his character after the breaking point in a major incident of the film. It is guaranteed to impact emotionally on anyone with the merest degree of sensitivity and humanity.
LE WEEK-END
Cast: Jim
Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, Olly Alexander, Judith Davis
Director: Roger Michell
Running time: 93 mins
The name Hanif Kureishi may ring a bell with certain filmgoers – as he was responsible for “My Beautiful Laundrette”, "Intimacy","The Mother" and “Sammy and Rosie Get Laid”. This time out, his writing partners him with director Roger Michell, as Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan portray a married couple in their 60s, having a go at some marital revitalisation by heading back to Paris, the romantic destination for their honeymoon, many, many years ago.Meg and Nick are both teachers of sorts, and play off one another beautifully in some delightfully insightful scenes, as they attempt to both intellectualise and analyse the structure of their marriage and the intimate relationship therein.
On an evening stroll through the Parisian walkways, they accidentally happen upon Morgan, a former scholastic chum of Nick’s from their Cambridge days. Jeff Goldblum gives a wonderful performance, almost stealing the film from under Duncan and Broadbent’s noses with an effortless display of charm, warmth, wit and enthusiasm.
The hotel the couple have booked is, unfortunately too beige and twee for Meg’s tastes, and despite both being under tight financial restrictions they nevertheless go on a spree, by taking an expensive sightseeing taxi tour, hauling themselves into a five-star hotel and deciding upon a delicious meal in a classy restaurant where they run up an enormous bill. Teenage impulses return as they do ‘a runner’. All this time, sex-starved Nick is desperate for some between the sheets activity, sadly proving fruitless as - despite his valiant attempts – he fails to arouse much l’amour from his betrothed.
Nick’s late-life-crisis reaches a denouement however, at Morgan’s deeply uncomfortable -small-talk dinner party. He issues a poignant soul-searched monologue of harsh reality that causes a monument of silence to build across the room.
A beautifully written, paced, directed and acted film that will resonate with many, and offer huge appeal to others.
