This is not a review of the Paul Greengrass film CAPTAIN PHILIPS. The film which opened the New York Film Festival just under two weeks ago is going to be a huge hit and if it's not then audiences around the world don't know what good films are. John has already reviewed the film and his take can be found here.
Simply put the story of the hijacking of a container ship by a group of Somali pirates is as tense a film as Hollywood has turned out in years. Its an amazing film since while we side with Philips (Tom Hanks's character) we also feel for the pirates. Its an amazing film where on a certain level the bad guys aren't that bad (relatively speaking).
The reason I'm writing this piece is to simply say that if you ever wanted to know how good Tom Hanks is as an actor see this film. Watch him as the film goes on and the intense performance he gives. Its amazing.
Actually watch the final sequence in the sick bay and you'll wonder if he's acting. Watch it and consider that the scenes was done on the fly and made up entirely on the spot and completed after six takes in less than an hour. Seriously Hanks and Greengrass said they just made the scene up in response to the question of "what happened when Phillips got on the ship" and the Captain of the Navy vessel simply said " He went to sick bay because he was a mess".
Talk about movie magic
... put Hanks on Oscar's short list.
CAPTAIN PHILIPS is one of the best films at NYFF and of the year. Go see it when it opens Friday.
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