'Sully' review: Whew! You'll hit the exits thrilled, chilled and happy to be alive

To answer the only real remaining question here, yes, there are very good reasons to venture out this weekend to see Sully.

Besides just being a generally good time at the movies -- thrills, laughs, feels, the whole spectrum in 96 brisk-as-January-in-New-York minutes -- Sully fills in two fundamental pieces of the story that, for all its round-the-clock news coverage, we only thought we knew too well.

Foremostly, it resolves the most frustrating thing about watching The Miracle on the Hudson unfold back in 2009: the improbable fact that we didn't get a view of the splashdown itself. Sure, there was some smeary security footage that came later, but to really appreciate the physics-defying precision required to keep that Airbus A320 from breaking into 1,549 pieces in the water, you need to see it up close and clearly.

Clint Eastwood's unadorned, no-nonsense style is perfect for this particular job. No fancy super slo-mo, no phony music cues, none of that; just a sharp, real-time look at that water landing -- two looks, actually, since we get to relive the moment in the film's goosebumpy climax -- and just like that, your memory of US Airways Flight 1549 is almost complete.

Almost, that is, because there's another piece of this story Eastwood floats to the surface that most of us don't remember: The months-long investigation into whether Captain Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger made the correct choice by skimming the Hudson rather than shooting for one of three nearby airports.

It's here that Eastwood take the most creative license. Yes, the National Transportation Safety Board did, indeed, thoroughly investigate whether Sully's was the right move. In Sully, those bureaucrats are played by Mike O'Malley, Anna Gunn and Jamey Sheridan as snarling, browbeating bulldogs who have no time for tales of heroics; their investment in debunking Sully's hero status seems almost ... personal.

Which is a weird choice, because according to the NTSB, it wasn't like that at all. Yes, those questions were asked, a procedural process that led to the conclusion that [no spoilers! I bet you don't remember, and it's better that way].

But to make that conflict work, these straw villains weren't necessary. It would've been just as powerful an arc had the investigators been practically reverential -- as has been reported -- and in "just doing their jobs" mode. The question was the question, and a valid one.

As such the NTSB's make-believe vitriol feels downright unnatural, and then it turns on a dime in a jarring moment for Gunn, the board's lone woman, who's forced to deliver the crow-eating apology right there in front of anyone.

But what the hell, it's a movie, and a damn fine one. Tom Hanks is terrific as the stoic (but not unfeeling) Sullenberger, Aaron Eckhart's moustache makes a giddily fun sidekick, the rescue sequence is a heart-stopper, there are at least three lip-quiver moments and next thing you know, you're filing for the exits feeling glad to be alive.

Isn't that the movies at their best?

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable