The most daring rescue in the history of flying is given the big screen adaptation, in Clint Eastwood’s newest offering “Sully”. Based on the real life rescue deemed “The Miracle on the Hudson”, the movie takes place on January 15, 2009, with the veteran US Airways pilots Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and First Officer Jeffery “Jeff” Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) boarding US Airways Flight 1549 departing from LaGuardia Airport and taking off. Barely three minutes into the flight, disaster strikes, the Airbus A320 hits a flock of Canadian Geese, which cripples both engines of the A320. Without engine power and no airport within range, Sully is forced to land his ill-fated airliner in the frigid waters of the Hudson River. With 155 passengers and crew on board, Sully, against immeasurable odds, successfully ditches the aircraft, sparing the lives of the crew and passengers and he is dubbed a hero by the press for his actions. But soon afterwards, Sully’s life is invaded by reporters and investigators who force Sully to put his job, family and reputation on the line. “Sully is rated PG-13 for some peril and brief adult language.

Clint Eastwood has been 50/50 in terms of his directing efforts in his career. “Sully” will be one of his better movies, but it definitely has some storytelling problems that sacrifice its smooth transitions later on during the third act of the movie. This is a movie that suffers through some turbulence in true story cliches that hinders its altitude, but for a majority of this movie, it flies smoothly because of the heart of a city that has been through some tragedy within that particular decade, and because of two great performances by two compassionate actors that always keeps a heroes story feeling human and relatable. If Eastwood garners just one thing to make him a spectacular director, it’s in the presence of these extraordinary characters living in a world that seems thirsty for a hero. Eastwood rarely fails when it comes to conjuring up a dust of magic in the air, and in “Sully” that ambiance is all around him for the most aesthetically challenging movie of his career.

This movie is shot from a very beautiful vantage point of having the capability to see the events unfolding from more than just one point of view. The editing and cutting transitions are smooth and offer the reactions of the pivotol characters within this story unfolding before our very eyes without ever feeling bloated or eye-rolling. It’s an important aspect considering everything is playing out so fast for our protagonist who holds all of these lives within his hands, and it gives the audience an advantage in taking everything in long before the depositional team who are fighting against Sully ever have the chance to. The sound mixing and editing are also quite commendable, and often overlap a barrage of voices over one scene that is playing out in front of us. What I mean by this is that at any given time you will hear the panic or cries of passengers who are seperated by a wall from these pilots, during the dialogue of preparation between them. It’s sort of a reminder just how many things this plane of 150 people have in common, and crafts the subtlety in the most important day of their lives being in the day they could die.

There are many things I enjoy and dislike about Todd Komarnicki’s script, which is based on the novel “Highest Duty” by Chelsey Sullenberger, the wife of Sully. He’s great at nailing down the polarizing aspects of fame and the concept within a hero overnight. Perhaps my favorite aspects about this movie are those of how this fifty-something everyday man is transformed into the face of a miracle within minutes of this event happening that he could’ve never planned for. What plays out AFTER is what is important to this story, and the first forty-five minutes of this movie really paint an imposing picture that reminds us that good or bad, things will never be the same for this man. I also greatly enjoyed the uses of psychologically navigating through the interior of Sully’s dreams and visions to hint at what could’ve gone wrong. When you live through something as terrifying as the events depicted in the film, your first instinct is to think about the second path that the events could’ve taken, and Komarnicki does this without it ever being repetitive or hindering the actual story playing out before our eyes. For most of this movie, I couldn’t get out of my head the kind of psychological durress that these four minutes are going to have on Sully for the rest of his life, and that’s quite altering when you think about it.

Of course I did mention before that there were some aspects that I could’ve done without in the script. The first happens during the beginning of the second act when the movie feels it’s now necessary to introduce some new characters into the movie who are passengers on board. It feels slightly desperate to execute this move this late into the movie, especially considering we have been shown plane sequences up to this point. These characters should’ve been introduced early on, and their minimal time didn’t change my emotional investment in their stories one bit. My second problem is a joint deal in that the movie strongly lacks suspense in a story that most people already know. This is a difficult thing to pull off with real life events, but “Sully” never tries to steer off course of what we already know, and this can make the movie play out a little slow later on. A big problem for me came during the entire third act in which serves as only a refresher course of everything we have already seen up to this point. The movie repeats entire sequences of events that we saw an hour prior, and this surprisingly happens a lot in movies, and really shows the holes in depth to such a story. Four minutes really isn’t a lot of time to grasp a 91 minute feature, so Komarnicki would rather repeat some things that we’ve already experienced. How would I fix something like this? Simple. When the scenes play out for the first time, cut them right before the sequence that we will see later. If these are simply just recollections from our protagonist anyway, it won’t be a problem to have them interrupted for any number of reasons. When they finally play out in the end for the audience, we will come to learn who is right and who is wrong with the characters who are debating on-screen before our very eyes.

As for the performances, the two male leads really shared a likeable chemistry that lit a fire within this story. Tom Hanks is once again brilliant, transforming into this character with effortless precision, and really relating to the audience the human aspects for such a respected public figure. Sully is minutes from losing everything he knows in his life, and Hanks executes this feeling with patience and confidence in his abilities as a pilot to do the right thing. Unfortunately though, even in his own movie, Hanks is outshined by Aaron Eckhart. Aaron is the very definition of supporting character in this movie. He strengthens the honor of our lead, he presents a welcome contrast to Hanks Sully, and he serves as a voice of reason during a time or two when people can’t see the bigger picture. Eckhart has always been Mr. Dependable when it comes to his versatility in roles, but some of his sweeter gems to me are always those in which he plays it closer to the chest. A chest that exerts a lot of heart for a movie full of it. These two have remarkable chemistry together, and it’s during their scenes together where Eastwood’s film had me the most intrigued.

Overall, “Sully” is an early fall treat that gets its wings by the brilliance of two male leads in this story, as well as a range in camera style that Eastwood continues to dazzle with. Though the repetition late in the movie sent me home slightly more disappointed than I was thirty minutes prior, the overall sum of its parts presents us with a somber and heartfelt opportunity at a real life hero in a world where they rarely exist anymore.

7/10