I had no clue of the events following the mildly amusing news that a plane had successully landed on the Hudson river. It didn’t seem like a big deal back in 2009, partly because it didn’t take place in my home country and otherwise because I am not an aeronautics geek. This movie portrays the investigation that followed the plane crash.

While the film could’ve been made as a documentary, no one watches those. One way to solve this problem is to have well known actors play the lead roles in the story. This is generally what happens when you see a movies that have the ‘Based on true events’ sticker slapped on to them.

Given all that, instead of going about discussing the technicalities or accuracy of the flight details, I am going to discuss the film itself. Continuing on my previously mentioned desire to evaluate movies without considering whether they are based on real events. In that vein, I think that Sully represents an interesting form of storytelling, it guides you through the emotions of the man in charge of the critical decision.

But it is also a good thing that the movie doesn’t last too long as otherwise it risks becoming a bureaucratic bore. The non-linear approach helps in generating the minimum tension needed for the movie to work at all.

Watch it if you don’t already know how risky and wondrous human aviation is.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (Good)