Sully review: The Tom Hanks - Clint Eastwood combo works!

Film: Sully
Dir: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Mike O'Malley, Jamey Sheridan, Anna Gunn

What's it about: 

It's 2009. New York. A routine flight takes off, 155 passengers on board, and some 200-odd seconds later, crash lands into the Hudson. Everyone survives and the captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger (Hanks) is declared a national hero. Not too late after, he and his first officer, Jeff Skiles (Eckhart) are called in for questioning by the National Transportation Safety Board to ascertain if Sully knowingly endangered the lives of many and if the runway options offered to him were turned down willfully. Doubts are cast on his judgment, despite clocking several flight hours over the years. Like it always does, incidents like these, turn into a media circus. This is a tale, not about a tragedy that was averted, but of a man called into question over his experience and judgment-making capability. A dramatic retelling of a story of our times, in our times, it is also a chronicle of courage in trying times and how much can be accomplished (or lost) in mere seconds.

What's hot
The film's been perfectly cast. A cursory Google/YouTube search will reveal to you how closely Hanks and Eckhart Sully and Skiles resemble the actual men in the cockpit of that ill-fated plane. It also tells you how it wasn't just the pilots as well as the crew who were responsible in the survival of everyone on the flight. And while that's because much of this is based on Sully's perspective, the real success here is how director Clint Eastwood makes his 90-odd minutes count. Any longer and this film would have lost its bite, its edge. Understand that the actual incident lasted mere minutes. When you first meet Sully, he has had no time to absorb the enormity of the consequences of his act. Was it bravery or bravado? It's a question he ponders about. He's a hero, but for a brief moment in time, he's made to feel the opposite. A solid, no-fuss screenplay (Todd Komarnicki), top-notch editing (Blu Murray) and some great cinematography (Tom Stern) make this an interesting outing.

What's not:
One might as well have just cast Hanks and Eckhart. The supporting cast, made up of names or faces you'd know in an instant, doesn't have them on screen for too long. Moreover, while this was an event of some significance and even though this film is a technically efficient and visually remarkable (completely shot with IMAX cameras), you still find yourself double-guessing if this extraordinary story of an otherwise ordinary (and relatively unknown to those outside the US) really demanded an actor and director of this stature and resources of this nature for the story to be told. It's Oscar bait for sure, but one wonders if it could have been so much more. Also, the investigation scenes felt a little weak. 

What to do
The Hanks-Eastwood combo works. The film rarely lets your attention slip from the events up on screen. And that's something to be proud of, these days. Did I mention it was a Hanks-Eastwood project with a dash of Eckhart thrown in for good measure? Take flight with this one. It won't let your expectations crash.

Rating: ***1/2 (Three and half stars)