"Sully" movie review

Unfortunately, Clint Eastwood’s “Sully” struggles to take off.  I apologize for the flight pun.

When it was announced that Eastwood was directing a feature length film about Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s heroic landing of the US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, I was excited—especially when I found out that Tom Hanks was playing the title character.  The plot practically writes itself:  we start on the morning of the plane’s departure, and we make a cursory attempt at character development.  Following takeoff, the film’s big set piece—the aforementioned descent and landing—takes place.  From there, the film could focus on the media’s reaction of the event, and we can get further into the head of Captain Sullenberger…and his PTSD that he suffers through in the days following.  The film could also look at the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of Sully’s actions, where they question if the landing in the Hudson was necessary. 

All of this made it into the final product, and yet the film’s problems with structure made the end result feel like a non-event. 

Screenwriter Todd Komarnicki (whose previous credits include “Perfect Stranger,” a Halle Berry thriller that can be found in the bargain bin at your local Wal-Mart) starts the film with Sully having a nightmare that he actually crashed the plane in a building, which is bound to upset some considering this takes place in New York.  We see that nightmare twice, and also one with Katie Couric shaming Captain Sully on national television.  As mentioned above, Sully really did suffer from PTSD following the landing of Flight 1549—but the film doesn’t do that great of a job conveying these in a dramatic fashion.  Additionally, the film takes an In Medias Res approach and begins after the plane’s dramatic landing and doesn’t show us what happens on the flight until after 20 minutes—which doesn’t work that great with this kind of narrative.  It’s almost like it was decided that the film about a plane landing on the Hudson River needed more drama to stretch it to feature length.

I also had problems with the NTSB investigation, which is exaggerated for the film so that there is a clear-cut hero (the All-American Tom Hanks playing Sully) and a designated villain (the investigation board, led by characters played by Anna Gunn and Mike O’Malley). 

The marquee performances—Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, and Laura Linney—are all fine, with Tom Hanks making it out the best of the three.  His internal struggle is played with restraint, and Hanks goes a long way to give the film some much needed ethos and pathos.  However, Hanks has spun gold with dodgier material—and when he shows up to act, we should expect a believable performance.

I feel inclined to end this review on another negative note.  Because of the aforementioned PTSD of the main character and the ongoing investigation, we end up seeing clips from the flight’s descent and landing three times over the course of the film.  Further, we see people reacting to the plane going down at another point in the film.  This repetition would have been annoying in a two and a half hour film, but in a 90 minute film (which is what “Sully” is) it feels like the filmmakers have run out of material and are desperately looking for something to pad. 

Rating:  C