Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
On 15 January 2009, the world witnessed the 'Miracle on the Hudson' when Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 souls aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and career.
Clint Eastwood's Sully is elevated almost entirely by Tom Hanks's measured, deeply credible performance as Sullenberger, which anchors the film's emotional weight. The cinematography is competent but unremarkable, with the Hudson landing sequence being the visual highlight. The plot structure — intercutting the investigation with flashbacks to the incident — is functional but workmanlike, and the NTSB antagonists feel somewhat cartoonishly adversarial. Novelty is limited; it follows a fairly conventional true-story biopic template, and the investigation framing device doesn't add enough texture to distinguish it meaningfully. The ending resolves predictably given audiences already know the outcome, landing as satisfying but not resonant.