Title: Flight
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Distributed by: Paramount
Release Date: November 2, 2012
Rated: R
Synopsis: An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling. (Via IMDB)
Brian: Flight was not at all the movie I expected it to be. This is a compliment. Given that it’s a big-budget Paramount movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis, I thought it was going to be a lighter, uplifting look at the aftermath of a plane crash and the troubles the pilot gets into. Certainly the trailers didn’t help matters much, making the movie look like a jovial summer comedy. I think audiences are going to be shocked by the tone and nature of this movie. This is a dark, often very sad film, with Denzel Washington giving one of his best performances as a broken man who’s lost everything. The film has a handful of funny scenes, most especially with John Goodman, who is amazing in two brief but memorable moments. But it’s also jam-packed with quiet, heart-breaking ones, not to mention one of the most intense and realistic plane crash scenes ever caught on film. I was pleasantly surprised with how this film played out, almost with indie sensibilities than the big studio kind, and I was shocked throughout that Robert Zemeckis, who hasn’t made a live-action movie in twelve years, directed this. It just doesn’t feel like his sensibilities (until the very end). He has really grown as a filmmaker, and he does some of his best work in ages on Flght.
Shaunta: Well, considering that the previews did let us know that this was a movie about a plane crash and a pilot who’d been drinking, and that the movie would be released in November, I was definitely not expecting a jovial summer comedy. That being said, I agree that Flight was far darker and deeper than I anticipated. I expected the pilot to have had a few drinks the night before and to still have some alcohol in his system. What I got was a pilot with a severe substance abuse problem. Severe being almost an understatement. One thing for sure, this movie cemented my love of trains. Yikes. The film did a good job of showing Whip’s God Complex and the feeling of invincibility that I think is common to addicts. This was an absolutely unflinching look at addiction. If I have one criticism,
*****SPOILER ALERT: SKIP DOWN BELOW THE TRAILER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID A SPOILER HERE!!!*****
it’s that I didn’t believe the last binge. The character had been sober for nine days, he only had to go a few more hours, the stakes were super high (life in prison, maybe the death penalty), and nothing was stopping him from drinking himself silly as soon as the high-stakes court hearing was over. I did not believe that just the sight of a mini-bar would put a man who could fly a plane upside down while dead drunk and flying on cocaine that much out of his own control. Worse, it could have been cut from the film without negative impact. In fact, the final scenes would have been stronger if Whip had entered them sober so that there wasn’t the feeling that he might have kept on lying if he hadn’t just snorted cocaine to sober himself up enough to appear before the hearing board.
Brian: Umm, Shaunta, spoiler alert? LOL. But yes, I agree that the ending might have been even more powerful if Washington had been sober in that final hearing scene.
Brian (con’t, post SPOILER ALERT!): If there are any other negatives I have for the movie, it’s that I felt the very end to be a little bit too easy and sentimental, and the only portion of the movie that screamed out Robert-Zemeckis-at-his-cheesiest were these last two scenes. I also found the flow of the movie in the first twenty minutes or so to be a little off, cutting back and forth between Washington and a drug addict character (Kelly Reilly). I really liked the Reilly character, and how she factors into the storyline, but I felt like we could have been introduced to her in the hospital. But overall this is a really solid film, the kind that holds your attention from beginning to end and doesn’t insult your intelligence. Denzel Washington is almost guaranteed an Academy Award nomination for his performance, and John Goodman, who’s having a hell of a hot streak right now with an outstanding turn on Damages, and excellent performances in both this and Argo, deserves some kind of special Academy Award come next spring just made out to him and his awesome-ness. Don Cheadle is also really great in this movie–I feel like I haven’t seen him in a while. If you’re looking for a thought-provoking, engaging adult film to check out at the local multiplex, start with… well… Argo. But after that, check out Flight. It’s terrific.
Shaunta: Okay, okay . . . I put in a spoiler alert. I agree that the first part of the movie was a little jarring. Partly because it was so different from what I was expecting. It’s upsetting to think about a pilot like the one Washington portrays and it’s upsetting to watch Kelly Reilly’s character go through what she does. So, you go into the meet of the story kind of on edge. Not a bad thing, but if we’re talking about flow–not exactly smooth. I absolutely agree about John Goodman–he’s just a big bundle of awesome in this movie and in Argo. I agree with Brian: If you can only watch one, watch Argo. If you can watch two, get thee to Flight. (But not if you’re flying any time soon!)
