Movie Review: "Sully"

"Sully": B-.  One of the observations I usually make when driving to the airport to catch a plane is the amount of cloud cover.  If it is clear, I always announce to Momma Cuandito, "It's a good day to fly."  I'm sure she appreciates those insightful proclamations coming from someone who is neither a meteorologist nor a pilot.  After having seen Sully, I might have to start watching for birds, not just the clouds, before I say anything.  Of course, I am not an ornithologist either. 

Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood, tells the story of the US Airways captain, Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks), who thought he was on his way from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, but ended up landing less than six minutes after takeoff in the Hudson River.  A flock of birds had struck the plane and disabled both engines.  One hundred fifty-five passengers were on board; only a very few were injured, none fatally.  All are rescued by various commercial and Coast Guard boats and NYPD helicopter crews before the aircraft slowly sinks to the river's floor.

Almost all of the story focuses on the grilling inquiry of Sullivan and his first officer, Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).  The board's goal is to determine whether Sullivan made the correct decision to go for a water landing when he was only minutes away from returning to La Guardia or else choosing a vacated runway at nearbyTeterboro, New Jersey.   Not only is Sullenberger's career at stake, but so are millions of dollars which the airline's insurers will be reluctant to pay.  The NTSB's ultimate verdict concerning the cause of the near disaster -- pilot error, mechanical failure or an act of God -- will be the critical evidence in any insurance-related litigation.

The juxtaposition between Sully the life saving hero in the eyes of the adoring public, and Sully the alleged poor decision maker, could not be more stark.  Eastwood's depiction of the NTSB as being heavy handed, pre-judgmental, unappreciative and unsympathetic are over the top.  The board members may as well have been wearing black hats with bandanas over their faces.  Because the story is told more like a documentary than a narrative, we viewers have to wonder whether NTSB investigators are that inhumanely driven in real life.

It is also hard to accept, as the movie would have us believe, that the flight simulations shown near the end of the film --the "big finish" -- were not previewed by either the NTSB or by Sully, Skiles and their lawyers before displaying them in a public hearing.  Speaking of lawyers, are we to believe the pilots go into a hearing like this without a cadre of counsel?  I guess in Hollywood they do!

I acknowledge, as I've done before, that when a filmmaker takes on a project like this where practically everyone knows the ending before entering the theater, keeping the viewers entertained anyway is a unique challenge.  Having "said" that, in addition to what I believe to be a ridiculous portrayal of the NTSB, Sully has much room for improvement.  What follows are three quick examples.

The phone calls between Sully and his wife, Lorraine (Laura Linney), are poorly written and serve no purpose other than to cause us to think that Mrs. S was more worried about a handful of relatively insignificant problems in her own little world than grasping the enormity of what her husband was enduring.  Second, there is no tension whatsoever between pilot Sullenberger and first officer Skiles.  They each have the other's back, and there is no disagreement or second-guessing between them either during the aborted flight or the investigation.  Maybe that's how things actually stood between the two men, but a little tension would have improved the story.  Third, there is a half-hearted attempt to personalize the passenger manifest by introducing a mother-daughter couple and a trio of guys on their way to a Carolina golfing vacation.  Perhaps this is an attempt by Eastwood and writer Todd Komarnicki to emulate the 1970's film Airport which had several interesting passengers, among them Helen Hayes who won a Best Supporting Actress Award for playing a habitual stowaway.  Unfortunately, the Sully side characters are not in the same league as Ms. Hayes.

On the plus side, the reenactment of the crash, which Sully insists be referred to as "a water landing, not a crash," is engrossing, as are the rescue efforts to pluck the passengers before they drown or become hypothermic from the January waters.  Kudos to the casting and  costume teams for selecting and clothing Hanks to look like the real Sullenberger.  You can make that comparison for yourself if you stick around to see the closing credits.  Sullenberger and his wife appear on screen, as do many passengers who identify themselves by their respective seat numbers.