First Impressions: "Prisoners" + "Captain Phillips" (2013)

   Now that I'm no longer broke, last week I decided to treat myself to something that's long overdue: a cinema marathon. :) I try to see as many movies as possible, you see, for the sake of my best-and-worst recap at the end of the year. Now, there are a couple of movies that it looks like I've sadly missed my chance to see before the end of the year, like About Time and White House Down, but I still got a pretty decent assortment this time. :) I saw four movies, so I think I'll divide them into two pairs.

   Prisoners principally follows two characters in the search for two missing girls: the distraught father trying to torture information out of the apparent culprit, and the police officer on the case.
   It's strange that, among so many movies this year based on true stories, this one apparently isn't! :) It plays itself so seriously that I kept expecting "a true story" to appear on screen.
   And it's that sense of realism that's the movie's greatest strength. That approach perfectly fits the grim, sombre tone the movie sets up – but never to the point where it gets depressing. Nothing feels farfetched or artificial, and the characters all seem like real people. In particular, major kudos to Hugh Jackman! :) Even though the character is being driven to horrific torture, every mannerism of his performance makes him seem just like an ordinary guy every step of the way. When he flips out, you really believe it!
   But while it's executed so brilliantly, it's not tailored completely to my taste. A lot of the dialogue is a little too simplistic for my liking, and the overall pacing is maybe a bit too slow to be truly engaging or suspenseful.
   It's also pretty disappointing that Hugh Jackman's wife gets tossed aside for almost the entire movie, but now I'm just nitpicking.
   Overall, while it plods a little too much for me, this is still one of the most impressive movies I've seen all year.
   My rating: 80%.

   Captain Phillips is an account of the Maersk Alabama hijacking in 2009, in which Captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage by Somali pirates.
   When I first heard about this movie, the first thing that struck me was how unbelievably lame the title was! I mean, how much more generic can you get? I thought, "That can't be the official title!" Luckily, the film itself turned out to be much more interesting. :)
   Since I don't know the true story, I thought it was going to take place entirely on the ship as the pirates' attacks are fended off. But actually, that's only the first half. The second half takes place on the lifeboat, as the pirates attempt to get the captain back to shore and the Navy tries to stop them peacefully. That adds a great diversity to the movie, constantly keeping things fresh and tense.
   This also applies to the character of Captain Phillips himself: he's given a good range of emotions to work with, from determinedly defending his ship to fearing for his life. I'm a huge Tom Hanks fan, and here he delivers yet another performance to be proud of. The only thing that might prevent him getting an Oscar nomination is that apparently the movie seriously twists the facts in order to portray the captain as more of a hero than he really was.
   Still, in its own right, this is a very enjoyable movie, rich in suspense and momentum.
   My rating: 75%.

To be continued…