Flight

Flight is a movie that is saved by its performances. Director Robert Zemeckis’ makes an earnest attempt to make good out of a weak screenplay but there’s only so much that the director of Forrest Gump can do.

Denzel Washington pulls off yet another brilliant performance as the alcoholic pilot, Whip Whitaker whose world comes crashing just as the plane he's flying goes down. Whip wakes up in the hospital realising that he has just steered a doomed plane in a manner no other pilot could, possibly. Suddenly thrust into the limelight, he finds this new found attention hard to deal with, pushing him further into the abyss of alcoholism.

 

The scene in the hospital where Whip meets Nicole Maggen, a young woman who is dealing with drug addiction is understated yet powerful and sets the tone for their friendship and dependence on each other. Whitakers problems get further compounded when he realises that a full blown investigation into the crash being conducted by the National Transportation and Safety Board would reveal alcohol and drugs in his system at the time of his flight.  

In steps Don Cheadle as Whitakers attorney who in one intense scene states with conviction that his clients don’t ever go to jail. Cheadle essays the role with the panache that one has, over the past few years, come to associate him with.

However, my biggest problem with the movie is with the fact that it promises more than it delivers. The climax scene at the courtroom trial with Whitaker under the scanner is inadequate as it falls flat in the face of all the hype that has led up to it. 

All in all the movie just about works, riding on the back of Denzel Washington’s sheer brilliance.   

I rate this movie a 3/5.

Next up: A review of the Ben Affleck movie - Argo