Sully – miracle hero without major obstacles

One of the very few slightly more unexpected moments of Sully are right in the beginning. And for a while seems a slightly more linear approach to telling the story has been ditched to try to hide the simplistic nature of the film.

Tom Hanks as Sully

Tom Hanks plays real life hero Chesley Sullenberger in Clint Eastwood‘s latest, Sully. Tom Hanks rarely acts badly and he does well here too, and compared with Wikipedia’s record of the real events, seems Clint Eastwood tried to stay fairly faithful to the ‘original story’, at least how it is remembered today.

One of the better parts of the film is probably Aaron Eckhart‘s role as Sully’s co-pilot. Apart from that, the film’s unavoidable and predictable outcome without any real glitches make it a bit uninteresting.

The film very much brings to mind Denzel Washington‘s Flight, which is not stuck following a true story, and thus has much more freedom with the story line. And perhaps rightly for that reason it is also much more interesting, even if it also has its own problems.

Sully was, however, still entertaining and maybe thanks to fairly short running time, Tom Hanks managed just about to keep the story together. I would have expected much more from Clint Eastwood though.

The miraculous nature of the real emergency landing, and the exceptional character of Chesley Sullenberger, are maybe those situations where real life is more amazing than fiction. However, a good film requires a bit more and that is what the film makers seemed to have forgotten. Or maybe they were just blinded by the real events.

I didn’t mean to sound quite so negative as I did watch the whole film and did mostly enjoy it. Do judge for yourself and at least check out a few trailers. If in doubt, read a couple of more reviews.

Watch Sully trailer below

What is so mystic about this river?

Clint Eastwood directs

Now why didn’t I know about this film? It’s got Sean Penn, It’s got Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Lawrence Fishburne and it’s directed by Clint Eastwood. It’s won awards and all. And I had not heard about it until a couple of days ago. And it’s been out there sine 2003. I blame the marketing machine. I hope you don’t have to. It’ grim, it’s Clint Eastwood. It’s not the happiest film I’ve seen and it definitely didn’t make me feel very good. But I did like it. Very cold, very dark, very emotional. Clint knows how it’s done. And I can’t believe he can do so many things so well. He just can’t leave anything to anyone, he’s even doing the music himself. And not just in this film. Check out Changeling and Gran Torino too. Mystic river is just another proof actor turned director can get it right more than once. Now that doesn’t sound right does it. I guess What I’m trying to say is, Clint is great.

Changeling Jolie

Clint Eastwood must be among the most reliable figures in the film making business.

Changeling

And John Malkovich rarely appears in an uninteresting film. Angelina Jolie might not be quite as lucky with her choices of roles, but she has proved before that she can act as well and not just look pretty on screen. Changeling may be a true story, but makes an interesting film as well. Angelina Jolie delivers an excellent performance as the mother, John Malkovich is strange as ever, and there are a few other interesting characters involved as well. Everything looks polished and perfect, the sets, locations, acting and story line are all quite good. Apart from a few moments, the film relies on Angelina carrying the whole weight of the film and that she does. And she and the film did also get some Academy Awards Nominations as well. Maybe you can tell from the tone of this writing what I’m trying to say. However, what makes the film perhaps really worth watching is Jason Butler Harner‘s contribution. It even makes me want to investigate further the real story behind the film. Not bad, for Clint Eastwood. I do like his acting as well though. Maybe I should watch Gran Torino.