Genre: Drama/Biography

Based on: “Highest Duty” (2009) by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writer: Todd Komarnicki

Starring: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart and Laura Linney

Release Date: September 9, 2016

Runtime: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rating: Rated PG-13 for some peril and brief strong language

Plot Summary: The true story of a pilot who became a hero after he landed his damaged plane on the Hudson River in order to save the flight’s passengers.

Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart combine their talents into a suspenseful and brilliantly acted story about the real-life “Miracle on the Hudson” incident. Hanks delivers another outstanding and sincere performance (which is expected with any role Hanks plays), but he goes above and beyond by capturing the emotions that his character is facing perfectly. Aaron Eckhart and Laura Linney also do fantastic jobs in this movie and infuse great care into their characters.

There were aspects of this movie (especially the sequence in which Captain Sully has to land the plane on the Hudson River) that reminded me of James Cameron’s “Titanic” (1997) because of the chaos and visuals of the movie. This was really enjoyable to see because I felt that the nods to “Titanic” helped keep audiences interested and engaged.

I also really enjoyed the pacing of this movie. “Sully” is only 96 minutes which is much shorter and quicker than previous films from Eastwood like “Mystic River” (2003) and “American Sniper” (2014); these two films are both very long and drawn-out, but “Sully” is quick, yet suspenseful.

The only fault that I found is that there are one or two flashback sequences of Sully gaining a love for aviation that are not relevant to the story or character(s) at all. The order of the story overall does not make sense because it jumps back and forth between events in Sully’s timeline; what this causes is a drop in suspense and investment in the story because there will be a really chaotic and intense scene from the Miracle on the Hudson and then it will switch to Sully sitting in a hotel room or a bar. The story not being in chronological order is really confusing and incohesive.

I am going to give “Sully” a “B+”. I understand why this film did not receive many Oscar nominations and it is definitely not amazing, but I still believe it is worth a watch if you are a fan of Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart and suspenseful/dramatic stories.