AMMAN: Thanks to his universally acclaimed role in “Saving Private Ryan,” news that Tom Hanks would appear in Second World War movie “Greyhound” was an enticing prospect. But those hoping to see Hanks (who also wrote the screenplay, based on C.S. Forester’s novel “The Good Shepherd”) playing Navy Commander Ernest Krause on the big screen will have been left disappointed by the movie’s shift to a digital release on Apple TV+ as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the sheer spectacle of “Greyhound” would undoubtedly have made for an intense cinematic experience, the movie holds up well on a smaller screen too. As the USS Keeling (codenamed Greyhound) escorts a convoy of supply ships across the Atlantic, Krause and his crew are forced to hold off a pack of German submarines, battling fatigue and the elements as they find themselves constantly reacting to their often-unseen enemy.
The movie clocks in at a brief 91 minutes, but director Aaron Schneider makes the most of each one, crafting a tense and claustrophobic thriller that focuses on the command deck of the Greyhound and its embattled commander.
Hanks is an actor capable of driving a movie on sheer strength of personality and gravitas, but he plays Krause with a level of uncertainty and self-doubt that only deepens the sense of dread at the machinations of the German attackers. Ably backed by his supporting cast (including a quietly captivating Stephen Graham as second-in-command Charlie Cole), Hanks treads that finest of lines, playing Krause with enough competence to make audiences root for him, but also as a commander somewhat distanced from his crew. Krause is not superhuman and the moments of doubt we see him struggle with, the emotions he fights to keep in check, or the sailors’ names he misremembers, make him seem very human — and all the more relatable.
Every second of “Greyhound” is vitally, efficiently used. There’s spectacle when called for, but quiet introspection when it serves the story better. It may not have gotten a cinema release, but “Greyhound” is a film worth making time for.
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