*Originally written December 2nd, 2016*
Much like every film Clint Eastwood has directed in the past ten years, Sully left me cold with its flat and lifeless direction of a true life story. It truly was a fascinating true story, but thanks to Eastwood, it all just felt very pedestrian.
Tom Hanks bring some life to Sully, the titular pilot of the film who landed the fated flight into the Hudson river and saved everyone on board. The problem was that Sully just wasn't an interesting person, at all. He's such a bland, straight-laced person. Which I suppose might be the point, but it doesn't make for a very compelling lead character. Either way, it's just impossible to hate Tom Hanks.
The narrative is told through a very weird and non-linear timeline. We jump from pre-crash, to crash. to post-crash in a very messy way with no sense of pace. In the middle of the film we get a half hour flashback to the actual plane crash, which comes out of nowhere. Sully's sitting in a bar, then we get a scene that takes about a third of the film. None of it flowed well at all. Reminded me a little of Batman V Superman.
Aaron Eckhart really does steal the show with his magnificent moustache. It really was a wonder to look at. He gets some of the films funniest lines and brings levity to the situations, although he does have the last line of the film, which was one of the weirdest and most abrupt ending I've seen all year. It ends on this weird punchline and everyone erupts into laughter for what seems like an eternity, like it's the funniest thing they've ever heard, then it just quickly fades to black and ends. It was bizarre.
At the very least, the actual landing scene carries a certain tension and feels real. Although a lot of the passengers were annoying. This was the closest Sully got to the something great, but then they ruin it by showing the crash twice in two separate sequences. It was meant to show one scene from the cockpits point of view and then the passengers, but showing it twice really dragged things out and it lost all its impact the second time. I feel it was only done to drag out the very short 90 minute run-time.
There really is nothing special about Sully, it's not without its moments and Tom Hanks gives a usually reliable performance, but it just felt like another one of those flatly directed, bland and Oscar baity biopics.
5/10 Dans
Sully is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews and @ArronRoke91
Instagram: @thesurprisingadventuresofdanb and @ArronRoke
YouTube: Figment Reviews
Letterboxd: Dan and Arron
No comments:
Post a Comment