Sully

This is finally a film that caused me to get misty eyed.
The film is a simple one. Is Sully (the always great Tom Hanks) a hero or not? Was he capable of landing that plane back at the airport or was landing in the Hudson his best option?
Taking place directly after the miracle landing, Sully has several interviews and is the subject of a lengthy and in-dept investigation regarding what he did, as the mathematics and computer stimulations show that Sully could have made it back to the runway or been diverted to another airport closer in New Jersey.
The film unfolds slowly, not even showing the crash until half an hour in. The whole city pulled together to save those people stranded on the wings of the plane. I sobbed, it is devastating and heart-warming at the same time. But the people are saved, after a few harrowing moments in the frigid weather. And Sully is determined to make sure everyone is okay, not resting until he knows everyone is accounted for.
But he suffers from PTSD and has nightmares of the plane crashing instead into a building and he is at fault.
In the end, Sully is cleared as the pilot simulations are too robotic and mechanical, not allowing for human error and the time a person would need to process everything of that devastating event of birds flying into the engine and both engines blowing out at 2800 feet.
Hanks is amazing, showing utter devastation at what happened but refusing to bow to the pressure, yet he is a reluctant hero, showering his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart, also good) with praise. Laura Linney isn't in many scenes as his money-conscious wife who doesn't realize how serious what her husband survived is at first.
The crash scenes are realistic and it is truly a miracle that everyone on board survived with barely any major injuries. It was a harrowing twenty-four minutes but the city of New York needed a good story and it doesn't get much better than this.
Sure, there are some problems, like you don't really know what the problems with the Sullenberger marriage is and the investigators including Mike O'Malley and Anna Gunn are stick figures, but some of the passengers are humanized and given personalities, which is wonderful. This film is a must-see and among the best of the year. Grade: A-