Captain Phillips
Captain Phillips (first name Richard) in 2009 had just taken over the helm of US container ship MV Maersk Alabama. As a seaman, leaving his Virginia home to navigate the globe put some definite strain on his home life with wife Andrea (Catherine Keener). He gets to see her almost as much as we do. Anyway that strain paled by comparison to the events he endured in April of that year when his ship was hijacked off the Horn of Africa by Somali pirates. At the time millions were being extorted from many nations by these desperate brigands and the Alabama was just their latest target. However Phillips’ (Tom Hanks) cool head under pressure mitigated the ransom substantially. Unfortunately it also resulted in him being the sole hostage taken aboard the lifeboat in which the pirates escaped. We expect Tom Hanks to deliver a believable performance when portraying historical heroes and here there is no let down especially his climactic total meltdown from shock. But the real acting kudos must go to the four non actors who played the believably menacing pirates. What might not be believable if it were not true is that the incident resulted in an extended standoff with Seal Team 6, a US aircraft carrier and a US frigate versus four malnourished Somalis in a dingy - all under the watchful eye of the President of the United States. The back story of this total incongruity not to mention the mystery of how ill equipped illiterates could perpetrate such a bold act in the first place is what makes this biopic fascinating. However its attention to detail is also its downfall, making the films fairly normal length of 134 minutes seem substantially longer.