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Dec 19, 2013 Issue #48 - November/December 2013 - HAIM By John Oursler

Forget about that other big-budget extravaganza covering the same territory: Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking is a tenser, more credibly harrowing account of a Somali pirate takeover, and one that packs a bigger emotional punch to boot. The story is fairly simple. A Danish cargo ship is taken hostage by a group of Somali pirates who hold the crew for ransom in the hopes of a big payoff. What differs from Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips is that here there’s a parallel narrative concerning the negotiations between the spokesperson for the pirates and the head of the company, Peter C. Ludvigsen (Søren Malling), whose ship has been seized. His admirable desire to get his men (and cargo) home safely is slowly compromised by his refusal to be extorted, making him a fantastically complicated antihero and giving viewers of this gripping film even more to chew on. (www.magpictures.com/ahijacking/)

Author rating: 7.5/10