There's a moment, not far into this riveting piece of cinema, that Tom Hanks won me over. He and I (mostly I) have an uncomfortable relationship but not on on this occasion – far from it. After an awkward and ultimately unnecessary beginning (not of his making), the film opens up and takes off the moment Hanks walks on the bridge of a container ship he's commanding down the coast of Africa. Clearly a strong man of even stronger convictions, he becomes the voice of quiet reason in the most unreasonable circumstances.

Despite, or perhaps because of the confines of his stage (one boat, a handful of men), director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) has created a film of excruciating intensity. Captain Phillips defines white knuckle ride. Based on the true story of a cargo vessel hijacked by Somali pirates, he painstakingly recreates the events that led to this shipping Goliath being felled by three men in a skiff with a couple of guns. The director's signature is tight and personal, all wobbly cam and whip pans that intensify the crippling tension on board as Captain Phillips (Hanks) is taken hostage while his men, in hiding, do what little they can. If you suffer from seasickness, you'd do well to pop a Travelcalm first.

Naturally, things go from bad to worse, particularly when the US Navy intervene. They don't take kindly to piracy, certainly not when it involves one of their own. As the Somali's face them down, tension is ratcheted up to a heart-stopping ultimatum. In the centre of it all is Hanks with whom we spend the entire journey and not once does he let us down. Even in the aftermath, perhaps the most honest and touching scene of the entire film, his is an extraordinary performance. On paper, there's not much to Captain Phillips: pirates take ship, man tries to stop them. In the cinema, it's a relentless, frightening, sometimes terrifying ordeal that will leave you gasping for air.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on 30 September 2013