On a freezing January afternoon in 2009, US Airways pilots Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles were three minutes into their flight when a flock of geese collided with their Airbus A320, disabling both engines. And you thought Hitchcock’s Birds were scary.
Sully quickly determined that the aircraft did not have sufficient power to make it to the nearest airport, so he landed in the only depopulated stretch to be found in New York – the Hudson River.
The story made for cheery headlines around the world, so we should not be surprised that it is now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks as Sully, the only man in the US who is popular enough for the role. Cutting between the unlucky flight and Sully’s testimony before the pantomime villains who apparently populate the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Clint Eastwood’s drama proves as dependable as the pilot he depicts. (The NTSB have subsequently complained about being portrayed as “prosecutorial”; Eastwood has snapped back that they tried to railroad Sullenberger.)
Eastwood is not a showy filmmaker and almost everyone on the planet will know the movie’s outcome. That makes it all the more remarkable that there are plenty of white-knuckle moments, especially for the frequent fliers in the audience.
Hanks wisely eschews his trademark twinkle in favour of furrowed analytics. His Sully is a serious fellow. There will be no high-fiving with First Officer Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), an absence of buddyism which ensures that the fleeting moments of camaraderie between them feel entirely sincere.
Laura Linney is rather wasted as Wife At The End Of The Telephone and the Final Climatic Hearing feels a little staged, but Eastwood’s warm, grateful depiction of New York’s rescue services more than atones for any shortcomings.
Sit tight for the lovely sequence during the final credits featuring a reunion of the real passengers and crew of Flight 1549. You can just tell others that a goose must have flown into your eye.
