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A Hijacking Movie Review

A Hijacking (Kapringen) is a 2012 Danish thriller film directed by Tobias Lindholm and starring Pilou Asbaek. It’s a film that is incredibly realistic and down to earth.

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“We can’t rush these people.

Time is a Western thing.

It means nothing to them“

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After Somali pirates hijack a Danish cargo ship and take the crew hostage, authorities in Copenhagen begin negotiations with the pirates to free the crew. This is a different movie than your usual thriller flick in that it stayed away from those more sensational thriller elements by focusing more on the human drama within its horrendous situation.

Although that approach did not make it as intense as I hoped it would be, it still has its fair share of thrilling, but most importantly moving sequences. The back and forth between the hostage and the CEO who tries to negotiate his release is very well done and again grounded in reality unlike many US counterparts. It is very similar in storyline to ‘Captain Phillips’, but overall a superior movie to that Oscar nominee.

Pilou Asbaek is excellent as the very unfortunate Mikkel. He is the finest character in the film and the one for whom the audience feels for the most. But Soren Malling is also terrific as the negotiator, and again the scenes between the two are the highlights of the movie. The negotiating room was a place full of tension and despair for sure.

A Hijacking makes the most out of its premise for the most part, but I did wish for a more engaging first half as the second half is where the most engaging, most thrilling parts are. The characterization and the acting are both very strong and so is the emotional investment behind this whole ordeal, but I personally found the film less interesting and less sophisticated than this director’s famous movie ‘The Hunt’.

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The setting is so well used, the cinematography is great and the direction from Lindholm is reliably strong. The dialogue is one of the film’s strongest suits as it’s believable and heightened in tension and emotion while the small moments between the captured men made for a more human outlook on a very serious situation.

A Hijacking (Kapringen) is less interesting in its first half, but the second one is quite thrilling and memorable. This is a thriller movie that is more subdued and more focused on characterization and emotion behind its ordeal while the acting and the direction are both excellent and so is the dialogue. The negotiating sequences are its highlights.

My Rating – 4