Flight Review

Words By

• Mad Dog Bradley

Director/co-producer Robert Zemeckis’ first live-action pic since Cast Away (don’t even think about his tedious motion-capture animations) is genuinely morally ambiguous despite its major budget and big stars, and features a performance by Denzel Washington that daringly flies in the face of his noble previous pics. His Captain Whip Whitaker, a boozy, drug-friendly pilot whose secret life as an addict hasn’t detracted from his semi-legendary status, is in the cockpit during a flight to Atlanta when the aircraft’s hydraulics fail and he must terrifyingly turn the plane upside-down in order to crash-land it in a field, leaving six dead but 96 saved. However, the investigation into the incident, conducted by lawyer/spin doctor Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) with help from Whip’s pal Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), tests the ethics of all involved (and the movie itself), as Whip attempts to dry out with help from a recovering junkie (Kelly Reilly as Nicole), and everything leads to a lengthy, suspenseful public hearing where Melissa Leo’s prosecutor Ellen Block cross-examines with dangerously honeyed tones.

While the scarily-sustained disaster sequence herein impresses, what makes this work is the cast, with strong support from Cheadle, Reilly (very fine in a role that could have gone to a ‘name’ player) and a funny but expertly controlled John Goodman as dealer Harling Mays, introduced to the tune of The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil. But it’s still Washington’s film, and there’s no doubt that audiences used to him as Malcolm X or ‘Hurricane’ Carter will be appalled by the sight of him completely off his face.