★★★☆
If you’ve ever been on a plane and things have begun shaking too bloody much, then this film is most definitely for you. Sully is an hour and thirty six minutes of visceral aviation pangs starring the one and only Tom Hanks.
Sully tells the ‘untold’ true story of Flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport, a plane that ended up in the Hudson river with every single one of its 155 passengers alive. Told from the perspective of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the man who executed the landing, it is a raw look at a heroic man.
Context is key when it comes to appreciating the film: the Hudson river landing occurred in 2009, some eight years after 9/11 and to see it as a film inherently touched by American-patriotism and defiance against the odds may help to overcome some of the trite elements found within the scripting and dialogue.
At times it feels as though the movie overplays itself, and occasionally the moments of great, vivid drama take away slightly from the narrative. Hanks is always a little too smooth; he never seems to fray.
Indeed, to that end the film is unashamedly positive, a beam of hope, and it gives us a true hero to hold onto in the midst of a world ravaged by death, pain and disorder. But pockets of trite aside, the movie does prove incredibly affecting. Flight 1549 lost two engines at an incredibly low altitude, a situation that immediately put 150 lives into Sully’s hands, and director Clint Eastwood works hard to make you empathise with the pilot. Much of the film’s plot focuses around an inquest into Sully’s behaviour, and before long he is being acutely, brutally and vulnerably judged.
Throughout it all, Eastwood ensures that you are entirely on Sully’s side – your heart is mixed up with him and his lot – and the investigation’s lead commissioner is openly posited as the film’s villain.
Yet though Sully is the focus, by the film’s conclusion branches out, and takes aim at other targets – it delivers a powerful dose of humility and humanism, highlighting the collective bravery and professionalism of New York city’s emergency response teams This is a feel good film, with some stellar acting, big stakes and big feels.
Sully is in cinemas now
