‘Sully’ is a real look into the lives of the people affected by the ‘Miracle on Hudson River’ – REVIEW
Clint Eastwood follows his Oscar Nominated movie, American Sniper, with a retelling of the real life plane crash
The feeling you have just before your plane crashes in the water is a feeling some of you may never live to tell. And this is why the 2009’s Miracle On the Hudson River is a story worth telling. Everyone on the plane that crash landed on in Hudson River survived, all 150 of them. Sully is exactly the depiction of that day and the aftermath of the crash. How Captain Sullenberger felt and his mental state after the incident. Also, how he got to the decision to crash a plane in the Hudson River and how he fought that controversial decision.
For the most part, Sully is a success. There’s no need to tell you that Tom Hanks’ depiction of the real life Captain is magnificent. If you have ever watched The Green Mile, Forest Gump, Cast Away and Saving Private Ryan you know exactly what Tom Hanks is capable of. He follows what he does best, giving a good performance, and portrays the real life Sully as a humble and caring guy.
Not only does Tom Hanks do a good job Clint Eastwood does a good job preserving a sense of realism to his movie. Nowadays, it’s extremely easy to get caught up with Hollywoodizing, which simply means exaggerating the premise of a story. Eastwood, instead, decides to make its audience feel in the moment. He makes you feel like you are on US Airways Flight 1549 scared for your life surrounded by total strangers. Those strangers feel genuine and real. They don’t feel like actors playing a real person but just a real person needing to go somewhere. When the plane is crashing, you cannot feel anything but fear for your life just like the characters in the movie.
While it is its strength, it also serves as a weakness. Eastwood just doesn’t know how much to show the plane crash. It always goes back to where the movie feels as its more comfortable and that is the emergency crash landing. Although the in-between is rather interesting, there’s just an indecision to the direction Eastwood wants to go in. The main story is often cut out to include a 20-minute flashback sequence. When the flashback ends, the audience needs a bit of time to remember where they were in the main story. This results in a movie that seems poorly and aloofly constructed.
For many of the incredible things Eastwood is able to achieve, there is a polar opposite he was not successful with. The phone calls between Sully and his wife, played by Laura Kinney, were pointless fillers. The character on the plane, while giving plenty of depth, were almost unutilized. However, Sully achieves its primary goal as a drama, having dramatic scenes that actually work. Sully may not do every right decision but it does enough to save itself from total disaster-I guess miracles do happen.
Review Source: ZacharyDoiron.com
