Seven years ago, on January 15 2009, a US Airways plane that had just lift off from LaGuardia airport faced multiple bird strikes and was forced to make a water landing on the Hudson river. If you remember this event, you probably remember the captain on the flight who was hailed as a national hero ... Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. Sully is the story of the events that revolved around this historic water landing.
To clear the air, Sully is not a documentary about the water landing. Nor is this a biographical story about Captain Sully. This movie is an attempt to show the journey of Captain Sully through the landing, his trial by the safety board and the fame and attention that followed the landing. With Sully, director Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) tries to bring out the story through the eyes of Captain Sully himself and take us on a backdoor tour of what transpired in his head.
As a very embryonic decision, I told myself that I liked the movie. Tom Hanks, who plays the titular role, is as true to the character as one can be. Being a big fan of Hanks, I can hardly say otherwise. But with some research I set out to dig a little deeper with public appearances of real Sully; it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they were very much alike. Moving on, the other actor to get most screen time is Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight), who convincingly plays co-pilot Jeff Skiles, supporting captain Sully not only through the landing but also through the perils that follow. Surprisingly these two aren’t the only familiar names. You have Laura Linney (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) playing Sully's wife and Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) as well. But it's really difficult to justify their presence on screen. The only other cast member that seemed noticeable was Mike O’Malley as one of the Safety Board members, as a sort-of antagonist, trying to grill Sully into accepting the water landing as a mistake.
With an interesting story and decent performances, you’d think this would be a winner. Well of course there is more to it. I try to recollect what made the movie memorable and all I can think of is a complete shot of the events taking place on the flight and the final hearing of Captain Sully. It is then that I realize that the non-sequential depiction of events, jumping between landing and post-landing events, is something that didn’t really work for the movie. It felt as if every time you managed to get engrossed into the movie, it would change course. And that is how I wound up losing interest every few minutes. What should have been a brisk 90 min movie felt like it ran forever. And not only because of the format, but also because the scenes were played repeatedly with slight or no difference each time.
Overall, Sully feels like a decent movie to kill time. I would not be upset if I spent an hour and half watching it. But it is definitely not something I’m going to take home with me, once I leave the theatre.
Grade: B
As a very embryonic decision, I told myself that I liked the movie. Tom Hanks, who plays the titular role, is as true to the character as one can be. Being a big fan of Hanks, I can hardly say otherwise. But with some research I set out to dig a little deeper with public appearances of real Sully; it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they were very much alike. Moving on, the other actor to get most screen time is Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight), who convincingly plays co-pilot Jeff Skiles, supporting captain Sully not only through the landing but also through the perils that follow. Surprisingly these two aren’t the only familiar names. You have Laura Linney (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) playing Sully's wife and Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) as well. But it's really difficult to justify their presence on screen. The only other cast member that seemed noticeable was Mike O’Malley as one of the Safety Board members, as a sort-of antagonist, trying to grill Sully into accepting the water landing as a mistake.
With an interesting story and decent performances, you’d think this would be a winner. Well of course there is more to it. I try to recollect what made the movie memorable and all I can think of is a complete shot of the events taking place on the flight and the final hearing of Captain Sully. It is then that I realize that the non-sequential depiction of events, jumping between landing and post-landing events, is something that didn’t really work for the movie. It felt as if every time you managed to get engrossed into the movie, it would change course. And that is how I wound up losing interest every few minutes. What should have been a brisk 90 min movie felt like it ran forever. And not only because of the format, but also because the scenes were played repeatedly with slight or no difference each time.
Overall, Sully feels like a decent movie to kill time. I would not be upset if I spent an hour and half watching it. But it is definitely not something I’m going to take home with me, once I leave the theatre.
Grade: B
P.S. My opinion may or may not have been influenced by a glitch at the screening that made me go through the first 10 minutes of the movie twice.
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