Film: Sully
Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating:
Tom Hanks is an enigma. You think that he's at his best when Steven Spielberg puts him through the paces and gets him to do some sterling drama. But no. Every now and then (and I'm not taking about his Robert Langdon avatar) Hanks proves that he can move you to bits by being as understated, passive and restrained as any actor you'd see on screen.
Luckily for Clint Eastwood, it works like a charm in Sully, the cinematic retelling of the Miracle on the Hudson - where 59-year-old pilot Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger landed an airbus A320, with 155 on board, on the Hudson River after both engines failed. Without making the film hinge on a cinematic retelling of how the plane took off and crashed, with plenty of flashy visual effects and masterful sound, Eastwood recreates the story through the aftermath - a witch-hunt of an investigation, the incessant media attention and the nightmares that plague the aged pilot as he wonders if he did make a mistake in benching his plane on the ice waters of the Hudson.
And that's precisely why Sully is a fantastic film. Tom Hanks is so understated in playing the battle-hardened, veteran pilot that there's plenty of room for Eastwood to focus on Sully's journey in retrospect, after the crash (or forced water landing as Hanks corrects the FAA investigators). Eastwood's mastery at weaving between Sully's PTSD after the crash, his inability to deal with the undue adulation from the public and the journey of United Airways flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport into the river, is masterful. There's barely a dull moment, despite the leisurely pace and measure conversation. Most of the jokes are bordering on gallows humour and there's very little that's flashy about the film.
The editing and the subtle background score are taut and meaningful and combined with neat performances from an all-star cast including Aaron Eckhart, who plays the First Officer to Hanks' Sully, this could be the pick of this seasons box office offerings. They've also done an astonishingly good job to get Hanks to look like the actual Captain Sully, who has now settled into a life of airline safety management, after that career defining landing in 2009.
In an era where flying is mostly dependent on leveraging technology and following the guidelines, Sully is also a reminder that the men who fly us across the skies, are just as human as you or I. They have mortgages to worry about and wives to call. As Tom Hanks reminds the FAA investigaton panel, "Since you're looking for human error, why don't you look at the humans in that cockpit." that's some food for thought for every time we read that an air mishap has been credited to 'pilot error'.
Verdict: Sully is the perfect biographical retelling of a true story and Tom Hanks is brilliant as ever. It's one of those rare dramas that don't lag for even a second