Sully

This review may contain spoilers!

Well it's a Tom Hanks film, of course it was going to be amazing. I would give Sully an 8/10.

This film really excels about creating a psychological story around the character of Sully as he comes to terms with the water landing and ensuing media circus and hearings. There are a lot of moments that are just rife with moral messages, it's a nice film that really lifts your spirits. The cinematography is really nice and smooth, for a film filled with dialogue scenes there is certainly a visual quality that holds your attention. The editing is also really good and accompanies the cinematography well; the plane crash as a special effect looks masterfully constructed.

Aaron Eckhart, who played Jeff Skiles, hasn't had a role this good since Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight' Eckhart brings a great laidback feeling of charisma to the film and has a nice rapport with Hanks. Mike O'Malley, Jamey Sheridan and Anna Gunn, who played Charles Porter, Ben Edwards and Elizabeth Davis respectively, made for good antagonists as a collective; their drive to pin the blame of this scenario upon human error was well portrayed by each of these three in their own unique way. Max Adler, Sam Huntington and Christopher Curry, who played Jimmy Stefanik, Jeff Kolodjay and Rob Kolodjay respectively, seemed like really fun and relatable minor characters when first they appeared onscreen; I think Curry in particular deserves commendation for his display of desperation at the thought of losing his son. Patch Darragh, who played Patrick Harten, was really good in the airport control role; he brought a lot of passion to his performance that made you really feel for his character. Michael Rapaport, who played Pete the Bartender, was an enjoyable comedic minor role; his reaction to Sully's celebrity made for a memorable scene.

However the best performance came from Tom Hanks, who played Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger. By this point it's no real surprise to anyone that Hanks is the most memorable performer in any given film he's in; I mean he's one of the all time acting greats. In Sully Hanks presents a character who is very calm and reserved in his manner, yet this conceals a much harsher reality of how Sully is dealing with the plane going down. The night terrors and restlessness of Sully is very apparent and Hanks does a good job of showing him lose concentration. Yet there are tow scenes that really steal the show for me; firstly the joy Hanks displays when hearing all passengers survived is brilliant, and the final scene where he defends himself resolutely is powerfully done.

This film has some real high points throughout but ultimately the tone doesn't really change all that much; everything that plays out happens at a slow rate. Ultimately it would be fair to say the story trades pacing for a good narrative. There were also a few scenes thrown in clearly to to add to the run time and these felt quite out of place. The score isn't utilised very well, even in the scenes where it's presented it doesn't make the desired impact.

Valerie Mahaffey and Delphi Harrington, who played Diane Higgins and Lucille Palmer respectively, didn't really have a good mother/daughter chemistry; frankly as far as the passenger performances went they were some of the most forgettable. Holt McCallany, who played Mike Cleary, seemed to be important at the start of the film but was swiftly forgotten about; probably for the best as McCallany certainly wasn't leaving much of an impression. Laura Linney, who played Lorraine Sullenberger, felt like a waste of a screen time; Linney is very bland and has a character who offers nothing to the film at all. Jeff Kober and Blake Jones, who played LT Cook and Sully at 16 respectively, gave one of the worst scenes of the film; the reason for showing this scene wasn't very clear and felt completely unnecessary. Chris Bauer, who played Larry Rooney, is sadly just taking over for McCallany it seems as an unimportant friend of Sully's; funnily enough Bauer is just as forgettable as McCallany. Jane Gabbert, Ann Cusack and Molly Hagan, who played Sheila Dail, Donna Dent and Doreen Welsh respectively, didn't really add much to the landing scenes; it would have been nice to see these three roles get a bit more focus.