While it's definitely fair to call British filmmaker Paul Greengrass' high-sea hostage thriller "Captain Phillips" raw- the industrial, realistically rendered production details, the rough, borderline panicky photography/editing and the employment of non-professional actors all gave the movie such an unpolished sense of authenticity you could smell the sweat and blood in the salty air- I'm not equally sold on the riveting part.
It's true there are incredibly tense moments throughout the film, but things could get tightened up some more, especially in the bloated second-half, where the strains of limited story development really show. Also, after the initial thrill from the vital, hyperactive camerawork wears off, it's frankly quite nauseating to focus on so much shakiness. Directing-wise, it's nothing we haven't seen Greengrass do, pumping tension into dramatic situations through expertly executed action sequences, but the result is not as sleekly entertaining as his Bourne-movies nor as emotionally involving as "United 93". In the title role, Tom Hanks is very good, but the real eye-catcher in the cast is Barkhad Abdi, who gave a highly impressive acting debut as the Somali pirate leader. His expressions and gestures are not only convincingly menacing, but suggestive of a past, a depth, an entire history demanding to be known.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen