“Sully” is the most recent film by actor-turned-director Clint Eastwood. It stars Tom Hanks as its title character of Sully, and Aaron Eckhart as his co-pilot Jeff Skiles. The film depicts what was called ‘The Miracle on the Hudson”, when 155 passengers were saved by the quick actions of captain, Chesley Sullenberger, who made an emergency landing in the Hudson river when he lost both engines at low altitude. The film takes place after the event when the questions “Did he really need to land in the Hudson or could he have made it back to the airport?” and “Did he endanger or save those people’s lives?’ were asked.
This was a very good film. Not perfect but still very, very good. It has flaws but first I want to talk about the stuff that’s good, because there’s a lot of it. Tom Hanks recently has been compared to Meryl Streep a lot in regards to his performances and his name at the Oscars, and watching Sully I can totally see why. He gives a realistic but subtle performance that is 100% believable. The character of Sully isn’t big. He is a humble man who thinks of others first and Hanks is able to show so much depth in him without any big explosive scenes. Just in his nuances and relationships with his wife played by Laura Linney and his co-pilot played by Aaron Eckhart, who are also both very good in their respective roles.
The film is very well written, especially the characters. Sully is a humble guy who always thinks of others and isn’t at all concerned with the media or fame of it all. That’s who he is as a person and that’s who he is in this film. Something that surprised me is the amount of doubt it showed him as having. He wonders all the time “Did I endanger those people’s lives” and that’s a very human thing to think and it’s a testament to the writing. The script is also able to cover a wide variety of aspects related to the event, and it tries to show the viewer every perspective, but that is also where it falters a bit as well.
The film is trying to show you everything that happened that day but its run time of 1 hour and 36 minutes makes that job difficult. It tries to paint a complete picture but the film as a whole comes off a bit choppy, in regards to its editing. It starts after the event and the crash is shown through flashbacks. Sometimes that works in the context of the story but sometimes not. There are times you really want to stay in the present but you cut back to a flashback and it feels like the film would have benefited from rearranging those parts. Also, we really don’t see enough of his home life. We get to see brief 2 minute phone calls between Sully and his wife but not quite enough really get a sense of his home life which is frustrating to say the least. The ending was also very abrupt and didn’t have quite the amount of resolution I would have liked.
Overall I would say that Sully isn’t a masterpiece but it’s still a very good film. Tom Hanks turns in an Oscar-worthy performance and Clint Eastwood has another great film on his repertoire. The film could have benefited from a longer run time to flesh out characters and lengthen certain scenes to make the the film as a whole feel less jumpy. I would definitely say that “Sully” is worth a watch.
Rating:8/10
