Tom Hanks is fantastic as the skipper of a cargo ship captain hijacked by Somali pirates. Based on a true story, this is heart-pounding and vomit-inducing (more on the latter in a moment). Hanks (last blogged in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) may not get an Oscar nomination for this but his last scene moved me to tears. Newcomer of the year would be Barkhad Abdi as the main pirate. He had never acted before, nor had the others who play his fellow gang members.
Paul Greengrass (I didn't see his Oscar-nominated turn in United 93 (2006) (five years was too soon after 9/11 for me) but I did see at least one of his two Bourne sequels (2004 and 07)) keeps the action moving from a script adapted by Billy Ray (wrote/directed Shattered Glass (2003), and wrote the first Hunger Games (2012) (didn't see it) and State of Play) from the memoir by Rich Phillips and Stephan Talty.
And movement was my big problem. My regular readers know of my unfortunate affliction with motion picture motion sickness (MPMS). The camera never stopped moving, even before anyone boarded a boat. I was really uncomfortable and had to look away or close my eyes many times (perhaps I wept not only at Hanks' performance but with joy that it was over after 2 hours 14 minutes). It ended eight hours ago and I'm still not right. Those with my problem can see it on DVD in mid-January--still before the Oscars. Others should probably see it now. 94% reviewers and 93 from audiences on rottentomatoes.
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