Sully: Complete gripper

Cast:  Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney

Rated: 8/10

It was in 2009 that an American airliner with 130 plus crew aboard had to make an emergent landing in the freezing Hudson river and it was the courageous pilot’s quick-thinking mind that saved the lives of everyone on board.

Indeed, it is quite a thing to survive a plane crash and the pictures of the passengers standing on the wings of the plane in the middle of the Hudson have stayed in public memory all these years later. This film is based on the investigations into the act of the pilot and is riveting in its slow-moving drama thoroughly underplayed by the white-haired and impactful as always Tom Hanks.

As the commander of the fateful plane which gets bird-hit and loses goths its engine, Sully as he is called, is a character to be with. Behind the heroic act of deciding to land — and successfully landing — on water he is full of fear, angst and doubts about his actions even though the nations unitedly celebrates his heroism.

Sleuths of the transport safety department, however, think otherwise. Fraud or hero is the question they throw at him with simulated evidence that he had enough time and manoeuvrability to have landed the damaged plane on two nearby airstrips but chose to land on water, risking the lives of all passengers and crew.

The beauty of this gripping film is that it has nothing much really to go on as investigations go on but the way the director has interwoven flashbacks into the Hudson landing, the journey itself and Sully’s own mind playing fear factor with him as he wait in a New York hotel to attend the enquiry are a clever ploy which keeps you on edge.

The film is not to be and is the movie of the week. Hanks, is, was and will always be a treat to watch on the big screen, this one being no exception for this master of muted play. 

Source: The Pioneer, 11 September, 2016