Sully

Sully
Flix!


Everybody has something that to them is comfort food. Chips, or nachos, or in my case spaghetti. We just saw the film Sully, and this was not a cinematic masterpiece, but is was a good film and great comfort cinema.

As in Captain Phillips, Tom Hanks once again takes on the portrayal of an American hero. And he does a great job helping to tell a great story. Directorial choices did not do the story in chronological order, but this was better because we got to see the incident three times. Not great film making but who cares? This was good.

We get to see the aftermath of the the forced water landing. Not a crash. A forced water landing. Sully is crucified by the powers that be. Because a zillionaire airline and a zillionaire insurance company might have to cough up a few bucks. It's sickening and ridiculous. But it happened. He saved the lives of 155 people.

What a fascinating story. A story that demonstrates humans are still smarter than computers, and that 42 years experience is better than a computer simulation. Especially a simulation that was rehearsed 17 times first.

But that's what holds this movie together; the great and fascinating actual event. The movie here however tries too hard to put together a movie storyline that it ends up showing us the event three times and therefore loses much of the tension of the actual event.

We are subjected to some convoluted problem with the wife, and the exploration of his relationship with his first officer.

This film did a wonderful job of documenting this actual event and Sully for sure should be admired by us all. But as for the film maker, he's done better. And I mean Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby. He mis-stepped here. He was close but no cigar.

Grade: B