A HIJACKING – The Review

If you can’t wait for director Paul Greengrass’s fact-based CAPTAIN PHILLIPS with Tom Hanks taking on Somali pirates who seize his American cargo ship, there’s a Norwegian movie, A HIJACKING, opening first with a similar plot. I don’t know if Greengrass, known for UNITED 93 and THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, will include the big action scenes the premise seems to indicate, but A HIJACKING, not based on a true story, does not. The realistic, handheld style and look of the film makes it feel natural and unrehearsed.

While the Tom Hanks film is the true story of the Maersk Alabama hijacking which lasted four days in 2009, the Danish freighter in A HIJCAKING is in peril for four months. Somali pirates seize the MV Rozen in the Indian Ocean, demanding millions in ransom as the stubborn CEO of the shipping company tries in vain to negotiate a deal. As the heavily armed pirates occupy the ship, frightened cook Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk) and engineer Jan (Roland Møller) realize that any false move could be their last. Meanwhile, miles away, shipping-company head Peter Ludvigsen (Søren Malling) receives word of the volatile situation and attempts to take control of negotiations. As days drag on into weeks and months, however, it gradually becomes apparent that Ludvigsen is in over his head. With the lives of the terrified crew hanging in the balance, that lack of a clear resolution finds the situation aboard the MV Rozen turning volatile as Ludvigsen tries to stand his ground and the pirates grow increasingly agitated

A HIJACKING places you in the middle of the action in the most agonizing way, touchings on the boredom, the helplessness, and the smells of captivity. Director Tobias Lindholm’s vision is well-realized by cinematographer Magnus Jonck, whose jumpy, fuzzy-focused style gives A HIJACKING a documentary look and feel. Combined with top notch performances by the entire cast, and lack of musical score (until the very end), the result is an uneasy feeling that we are eavesdropping on a crisis rather than a fictionalized account of one. Much of the drama results from the various ransom demands tossed back and forth between the two sides in a canny high-stakes game of cat and mouse. The process and negotiation are mediated on land by the ship company’s negotiator (Gary Skjoldmose Porter) and at sea by a Somali translator (Abdihakin Asgar) and much of the plot is simply about getting one side to say “yes”. A HIJACKING does not delve into the background of the pirates. Though they push the terrified crew members around with automatic weapons, it depicts them as entitled businessman, neither sympathizing nor demonizing them. They bond with their captors in a scene where they catch, and devour a swordfish. The movie is tightly built, but Lindholm is patient, letting events unfold at the pace of reality, noticing the passing of time and unpleasant details about things like toilet conditions that a Hollywood film would have ignored. Mostly, A HIJACKING draws the viewer in with its nerve-wracking immediacy, emotional rawness, and elements of surprise, shock and suspense, and I didn’t miss the action scenes.

4 of 5 Stars

A HIJACKING opens in St. Louis Friday, July 12th at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater