A Hijacking. Not The Hijacking. This is
not Hollywood and there is no pony-tailed Steven Seagal to save the day, no
Tommy Lee Jones hamming it up as an unstable terrorist and not even an
on-screen stunt-filled, action-packed hijacking. A Hijacking is so unlike a Hollywood style terrorists-take-a-boat action thriller,
that it evens neglects to show the seemingly pretty damn crucial scene where
pirates actually capture a ship.
This could be one of a thousand
contemporary true stories. This is not the
story of a hijacking. Rather it is an understated story of just another
hijacked Danish ship, taken by Somali pirates in order to secure a large
ransom.
The ships’ cook Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk) is the focal point from the very first frame. But he is
not a hero, or not in the typical Hollywood
sense anyway. When Somali pirates board the ship, he is forced to continue his
role as the ship's cook while being locked in a room with two crew mates,
pissing in the corner and living in constant fear under the watchful eyes of
the scrawny but well-armed pirates.
Meanwhile, back in Denmark the CEO of the shipping company
is forced into tense and increasingly serious negotiations with the pirates and
their head negotiator and translator Omar. Mikkel is occasionally dragged out
of his hole to help with the negotiations, hoping simply for the chance to
speak with his wife and young daughter and to eventually return to them.
Mikkel and his crewmates are not the
action men of Under Siege. The CEO is no upstanding President desperate to do
anything to get his boys back. A Hijacking feels frighteningly real throughout
but not always because of the threats of the pirates. It is a modern tale of
men in an impossible situation, negotiating for lives with vast sums of money
but with little trust between each party. Even the Somali pirates are not
cardboard cut-out bad guys, with odd moments of humanity in amongst the hard
exteriors.
On board the boat, Mikkel and others are
trapped and terrified. The stand off and negotiations take over 120 days
allowing for plenty of time for their fears to fester and their hope of rescue
to fade. There are rare glimpses of hope and even a potential bond forming
between captors and captives. However these pirates are all business, as ruthless
in their negotiations as any corporate big wig, just with the added bargaining
chips of bloody great guns.
Whereas 120 days must seem an eternity
to the men on board with pirates and the ship's crew alike all feeling cabin
fever and wishing to go home, it flies by in the film. With regular on screen
up dates announcing how many days the events have continued, the tension mounts
as the negotiations continue and emotions escalate.
Families of the men left back home are
rarely brought in to the story. Writer and director Tobias Lindholm's script
rarely deals with straight forward, out in the open emotions. Crying wives and
children feature far less than the cold and calculating men in the boardroom,
negotiating the release. Søren Malling
is magnificent as the under siege CEO,
Peter who puts himself in the position of most power but also most pressure. An
efficient and determined businessman, he ignores advice to bring in a
negotiator and handles the communication with the pirates and Omar all himself.
Lindholm's script is sparse in terms of
character motivation, back-story and depth. It is like a documentary that only
captures fleeting moments over the 120 day stand off. Mikkel has a wife and
child who he wants to get back to. The Somali pirates want money. They are
thin, scruffy, armed and dangerous and presumably desperate. Why CEO Peter
wishes to take on these toughest and most critical negotiations of his life is
unclear.
That said, all the characters are completely
believable. Their emotional ups and downs are convincingly realised by an
excellent cast, including Gary Skjoldmose whose real life experience of dealing
with pirates bled into his role as negotiating consultant Connor Julian. It is
a testament to the reality of the script, shooting style and performances that
the boardroom scenes are as thrilling and tense as the scenes on board the boat
where guns are actually being put to heads.
The negotiations can be frustrating and
the back and forth phone calls and faxes are both full of drama and down played.
The skill of the negotiators and the seemingly cold efficiency that they deal
with the hijackers makes way for a more personal and increasingly emotional
tone as the film continues. It is fascinating to see the toll that the events
are taking on all involved, from those on board to those in the safety of the
boardroom.
The morality of all these players is
never really dealt with. What is behind the motivation to negotiate? Is it
simply to make both sides sweat on the way to a resolution? Is it greed,
distrust or common sense? Risks have to be taken and the men with the money
have to hold off paying up as long as possible. It really is an impossible
situation but Lindholm's film captures it with all its moral complexities
intact.
A
Hijacking might not have the explosive action its title might suggest in a Hollywood film but it has high tension, high drama and
high stakes. Though it skips the actual moment of hijacking, it never flinches
from the psychological repercussions on the main players. For the 120 plus days
depicted, it is completely captivating.