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Tom Hanks-piloted ‘Sully’ as solid and unassuming as its hero

Put Tom Hanks in charge of pretty much any vessel — be it the container ship from “Captain Phillips,” the lunar module from “Apollo 13,” even the school bus from “Bachelor Party” — and something is bound to go wrong.

But he’s exactly the actor you’d want to calmly save the day without a lot of fuss.

Well, except for those scenes in “Bachelor Party.” There was nothing resembling calm anywhere near that movie.

Anyway, Hanks carries on that tradition as Capt. Chesley Sullenberger in “Sully,” the behind-the-scenes story of the “Miracle on the Hudson” from director Clint Eastwood and screenwriter Todd Komarnicki, who adapted Sullenberger’s book, “Highest Duty.”

The movie is every bit as solid and unassuming as its hero.

On Jan. 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 was struck by a flock of birds, destroying both engines shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Sensing the plane didn’t have the power to return to LaGuardia or make it to nearby Teterboro Airport, Sullenberger landed the plane on the Hudson River, saving all 155 lives on board.

Asked how he pulled off the maneuver, Sullenberger simply responds, “I eyeballed it.”

It’s that humility that makes Hanks the perfect choice to portray Sullenberger. Heck, if Hanks didn’t already exist, Eastwood would have had to grow him in a lab.

Since the entire ordeal lasted just 208 seconds, the majority of “Sully” focuses on the landing’s aftermath.

While the world is hailing Sullenberger as a hero — there are interviews with Katie Couric and David Letterman, hugs and kisses from strangers, he even wanders into a bar that’s named a drink after him: It’s a shot of Grey Goose with a splash of water — he and his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), are being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Sullenberger can’t sleep, haunted by the image of his plane crashing into Manhattan had he tried to return to an airport. The NTSB (personified by Mike O’Malley, Jamey Sheridan and Anna Gunn) has him second-guessing his decision. Stuck in New York, Sullenberger can only talk to his wife (Laura Linney) on the phone as news vans surround their home. And the bills are piling up because he can’t get back in the air to earn a paycheck until he’s cleared.

“Sully” doesn’t give audiences much in the way of Sullenberger’s backstory. There’s a scene of him flying a biplane as a young man and one of him making an emergency landing when he was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base. You’re left to get to know the man through his actions, his precision and his modesty.

Told by skeptical NTSB investigators that the sort of bird strike he describes is unprecedented, he reminds them, “Well, everything is unprecedented until it happens for the first time.” And he’s quick to correct their terminology of the events of that frigid day. It was a “landing” not a “crash,” and it took place “on the Hudson” not “in the Hudson.”

Sullenberger also deflects the overwhelming amount of praise onto his fellow crew members, the ferry captains who rescued them as well as the NYPD’s scuba cops. (“Scuba Cops” coming this spring to Fox!)

“Sully” takes some liberties with its timeline. In the movie, the investigation starts immediately. In reality, the hearings didn’t take place for another 18 months. And, considering it’s based on Sullenberger’s book, moviegoers probably should take the vendetta the NTSB seems to have against him with a grain of salt.

As the NTSB tries to discredit him, Sullenberger notices their simulations, all of which show he could have landed safely at either airport, lack the human element. But the human element is all over “Sully.”

Hanks is terrific as Sullenberger. Eckhart supports Hanks, and by extension Sullenberger, just as he should. “If he’d followed the damn rules,” his Skiles tells investigators, “we’d all be dead.” “Sully” even focuses on the grief the air traffic controller (Patch Darragh) communicating with Sullenberger feels when he assumes the plane was lost. Plus, there’s just something about New Yorkers from all walks of life rallying together that always gets me.

“Sully” is a feel-good look at the surreality of instant fame and what it takes to keep it from changing you.

Sullenberger and Skiles congratulate each other with a simple, “We did our job.”

So did everyone who worked on “Sully.” No more, no less.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch

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