Captain Phillips, the latest film to cover the tragic events surrounding the 2009 hijacking of the American container ship Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia, has Paul Greengrass all over it. This one-time documentarian who applied his kinetic style to two films in the Jason Bourne action series and recreated similarly heartbreaking real-life events in United 93, is clearly in his natural element during life’s most furious moments. He brings storytelling order to anarchy and chaos better than anyone currently in the industry, and Captain Phillips  may be his best film to date.

While the events surrounding the Alabama’s kidnapping are certainly some of the most chaotic and complex our country has experienced in the last couple of decades, the story Greengrass tells doesn’t begin that way. In fact, the script, written by Billy Ray from the book A Captain’s Duty by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty, isn’t so much about the hijacking as it is a psychological examination of the tense relationship between Maersk Alabama’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage.

As the story begins, we meet Phillips preparing to leave his lovely home in the rolling hills of Vermont before flying to Oman where he’ll pilot the cargo-laden Alabama through the pirate-infested waters surrounding the Horn of Africa. He speaks to his worried wife (Catherine Keener) of the dangers of increasing pirate activity in the area. They consider the hazard, but are convinced to take the job due to the occupational threat of younger, bolder seamen waiting in the wings for better career opportunities.

The setting quickly jumps to a poverty-stricken coastal Somali village where bone-thin former fisherman Muse, under the deadly threat of powerful warlords, is mustering up a rag-tag crew of sailors with aims of overtaking any high-value ship that happens to pass too close to the Somali shore.

The confrontation between Phillips and the desperate Somali pirates who eventually take the captain hostage, reveals a vast rift between the haves and the have-nots -- those who are part of the global economy, and those who are left on the outside looking in. We’re never asked to sympathize with the pirates, but we are made to understand their desperation. We learn that these impoverished village fishermen eventually turned to hijacking after high-tech fishing armadas all but depleted fish stocks off the Somali coast. When Phillips points out that there must be other, more lucrative paths to commercial success than piracy, Muse replies, “Maybe in America.” The point is made.

Surprisingly, newcomer Abdi goes toe-to-toe with the seasoned Hanks in a convincing display of acting one-upmanship. His Muse eyes, hollow from the stimulating effects of chewing Khat, sport a hauntingly desperate quality that’s hard to imagine coming from a performer just recently plucked from a Minneapolis casting call. He humanizes the pirates while simultaneously ramping up the menace as the hijacking turns from bad to worse.

There’s an ominous pall hanging over Captain Phillips, forged partly from our knowledge of the real-life incident’s violent outcome and partly from this authentic recreation. The director’s signature frantic editing, hand-held shaky-cam, and desaturated color palette put us directly in the wheelhouse of this high seas adventure where serious danger lurks behind every wave.

Controversy continues to swirl around questions pertaining to the accuracy of the film’s depiction of real events that unfolded during those few days. Sure, the truth is stretched, and some of the events are outright fabrications. Movies do that. But while everything may not play out in the film as it did in real life, it all feels real.  And that’s all that matters.

(Released by Columbia Pictures and rated “PG-13” for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and for substance abuse.)

Review also posted at www.franksreelreviews.com.