Sully is a captivating and strong film for 208 seconds. Then again, as those 208 seconds are revisited. We revisit them again. And then again. This recurring insight into the on board poise of Captain Sullenberger most likely does not approach the reality of his valiance. Thankfully Eastwood double and triple-dipped into our predisposed emotions to carry us through the minutia of the remaining 88 minutes, give or take.

The film feeds off our memory of the event from television, our imagination of actually being a passenger or the introspective ideas of our own personal mortality. And this thrilling momentum is halted by redirection to a nit-picky and forced conflict with the meddling NTSB questioning the gutsy decision making of Sully. Throw in a couple of sluggish backstories concerning a few of the passengers and we just want to get back in the cockpit staring down the Hudson River…again.

The point is that I really do not care about the NTSB investigation. Ergo, to construct a film centered around the hearings was a poor decision at best. Even with the great Tom Hanks in the Captain’s seat, it’s wheels down for the film Sully, fitting only 2.4 napkins out of 5 in its carry-on.