Review - A Hijacking (2012)

On DVD and BLU RAY - "A Hijacking" - This fictional account of a Danish cargo ship crew of seven men held captive by Somali pirates quickly found me searching for my "highly-overrated" file to tuck it away in.  The seven men are held for ransom for over four months, and while there have been much longer real-life hijackings (2 years and 9 months!), I could only wonder about the complete lack of a military presence, from any nation, throughout the ordeal.  That there isn't even a mention of a military or government intervention, or a reasoning behind the lack thereof, hamstrung the narrative for myself for the majority of it's run-time.  Furthermore, although the film covers events well, it fails to explore them (or any one character) with any considerable depth.

The film centers on the harrowing ordeal of ship's cook, "Mikkel" (Pilou Asbaek), a loving husband and father expecting to return home soon when all hell breaks loose, and the calculated, Denmark based CEO, "Peter" (Soren Malling) who decides to handle the matter in-house by employing his shrewd negotiating tactics in dealing with the armed pirates over the phone.  There's plenty of socio-economic commentary spread throughout the narrative as the pirates and the CEO haggle over the prices of the crew's life, with a wealth of obvious, contrasting scenes concerning the pressed suits in a boardroom, the raggedy, gun-toting, sandal-wearing pirates and the terrified prisoners stranded between the two factions who are forced to deal with rapidly declining conditions.

I recognized the docu-drama approach here, though A Hijacking's superficial treatment fails to give a "voice" to any one faction- you'll naturally feel empathy towards Mikkel, though his character spends most of his time locked away in some portion of the ship or cowering in fear as he's forced, at gunpoint, to cook for the pirates. His character, as well as the remarkably claustrophobic feel (strangely, you don't get to see much of the ship at all) and drab cinematography, is missing a true dynamic.  I felt similarly towards the cold, detached, business-like Steven, an individual unaccustomed to losing control who only begins to truly feel "human" towards the very end of the film, apparently starting to crack under the pressure of the unwieldy situation at hand and the possibility of failure in the eyes of his superiors.

My call is to skip it and watch the similarly-themed Captain Phillips instead while it's still in theaters- A Hijacking is nowhere near as interesting or intense and exponentially more frustrating.  This is ulterior-motive film-making that never can quite get a grip on it's own material.  Screaming at the screen (internally) for well over an hour and a half wasn't my idea of a rewarding viewing experience.


6.0 out of 10

Director: Tobias Lindholm
Cast: Philou Asbaek, Soren Malling, Abdihakin Asgar, Dar Salim and Roland Moller
Running Time: 103 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language