Flight

The chances of being in an airplane with at least one fatality is 1 in 29.4 million. That’s a lower chance than being struck by lightning (1 in 5 million) and how many of us can say that has happened to us? Despite the incredibly low chance of being in a plane crash Hollywood still loves to show terrifying aerial experiences. There has been Cast Away, Lost, Final Destination, and Horror at 20,000 feet to name a few. While Flight may have a crash that trumps the lot of them it also has more to offer audiences than just that thrill.

The film concentrates on the fictional crash of a domestic flight from Florida to Georgia. The pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) does a spectacular display of flying to save as many people as he can and becomes a national hero. Don’t worry this isn’t a spoiler as the film mainly focuses on the investigation into the crash. While this is going on Whip fears that they may discover his alcohol and drug abuse issues. The story is not at all about the crash, but is character piece on one man’s attempt to overcome his demons.

The film concentrates almost entirely on Whitaker’s struggle to not get caught for his drinking and drug use. Washington has received a well deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the maverick pilot. The 58 year-old actor manages to make audiences sympathise with Whitaker even though he is unfit  for the responsibility he takes on every time he enters the cockpit. Whitaker starts out as the ultimate president for the Mile High Club with sex, drugs, and alcohol all on the morning of a flight. However Washington’s subdued performance as the pilot’s life starts to unravel around him works because it doesn’t go for the easily sympathetic actions. Instead Whitaker refuses to acknowledge his problems and just continues to keep drinking and despite all this audiences want him to get away with it because he is so charming.

Although the film is not entirely, or even mostly, based around seeing the plane crash, it still deserves a mention. Director Robert Zemeckis’ last live action film was Castaway with Tom Hanks back in 2000 so the bar was set very high for his return. The director’s years with motion capture (Polar Express, A Christmas Carol) have not reduced his ability to have audiences holding their breath and gripping their seats. If you think you can handle a crash think again.

Not only does Zemeckis not pull any punches with the crash, but he also shows the drug taking in the film in graphic detail. Whenever Whitaker snorts a line of cocaine, which happens a lot, the shot doesn’t cut away. Instead we see Washington snorts a line (of powdered milk) on screen.  The same level of focus was used when Nicole (Kelly Reilly) injects heroin before meeting Whitaker in hospital after she overdoses.

Nicole is the love interest and although Reilly plays a convincing and sympathetic drug addict the character feels shoehorned to add some sex scenes to the plot. Flight is Washington’s one man show who is only briefly eclipsed by drug pushing best friend John Goodman.

Although the film started out with a exciting and turbulent pace, straight after the crash it settles down into more of a coast. The film focuses on development and unraveling of Whitaker’s character, but it may have been more interesting to have fleshed out some of the other characters a little more. Zemeckis also made the same mistake he did with Castaway and ended the film too late. Instead of leaving the audiences guessing Zemeckis decides to include a schmaltzy tie up of the loose ends, which ultimately makes less of an impact.

Degree-2:2

Overall this is an effective take on a genre that audiences may now be desensitised to.

Just don’t expect it to have a fast and furious pace for the entire 138 minutes.

Flight Trailer