Not to be confused with the Monsters Inc., Sully here is refered to Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who along with his co-captain Jeffrey Skiles, landed US Airways flight 1459 into the Hudson river three minutes after take off.

Sully is based on the novel Highest Duty by the aforemention pilots and is directed by Clint Eastwood. Having no prior knowledge about the movie, my 96 minutes spent in the cinema were well spent.

Soon after take off, with a full flight, the plane’s engines are hit by an oncoming flight of geese, causing the engines to fail. In a high tension moment, Sully and Skiles follow out the entire protocol leading Sully to make the decision to land the plane in the river. While they manage to do that successfully, the transportation department, upon carrying out the investigation question Sully’s decision. They argue that the plane could have turned around and land safely at the airport.

There are moments when the movie feels like it’s dragging, the interest is revived when the investigations claimed by the transportation department are challenged by Sully.

Tom Hanks essays the role of Sully rather effectively (I can’t imagine another actor playing this role) and brings such gentlemanly qualities to the character: grace, dignified and refined. With white hair and moustache, Hanks brings a range of emotions to Sully: bravery, panic, fear, fright, determined and an over sense of calmness in precarious situations.

Though there are some moments when Sully is shown to suffer from post traumatic sydrome (the fear he has of crashing the plane are chillingly effective), the movie ends on a more of feel good factor lauding Sully as an all-American hero.

Sully is a movie that’s basically aimed to show the true heroic spirit of one pilot on that fateful day. This movie is not concerned about a plane crash, or as Sully says, a plane landing, nor is it some action filled plane drama (like United 93). The movie does tread a somewhat familiar path of the rather brilliant Denzel Washington’s Flight that was a character study of a drunk pilot landing a plane.

As I am a huge fan of Tom Hanks, I saw this movie purely for him and he didn’t disappoint. The movie, on the other hand, is a decent one-time watch.

3 out of 5

Ps. Do stay till the end to catch surprise appearance of “someone” during the credits.