Flight

Logline: An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.

Cast: Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

It's been way too long since my last post. So much for my horror theme. I blame school.

So, why this post if school is still on? Well, I really needed to vent about this movie. I literally just finished watching this about an hour ago in theatres. I pretty much stayed clear of all individual reviews of this one. I knew Zemeckis was directing, I knew this was a movie that Denzel could really flex his acting muscles that I know he has, and I knew this was going to be a character piece dealing with severely flawed characters. For those three reasons, I was almost expecting this to be my hidden gem somewhere down the road that I tell my children about one day.

I've chosen to drop my regular structure to allow me freedom of explaining my complete thoughts of this movie.

So, Flight starts off in a hotel room - Denzel, aka Whip Whitaker, wakes up beside a beautiful naked flight attendant after a long night with no sleep and a ton of alcohol. He takes a swig of his leftover beer to clear his throat. Right from the first scene we can tell this character is flawed. This is great, because later on we can see how he's going to change and it sets up for an interesting journey.

Not long after, I experienced one of the most intense movie scenes I've ever had the privilege of viewing in theatres. The actual plane crash is phenomenal. I can't use any words to do it justice, it's really that good.

Well, the positive critique stops there. Because right after the plane crash I was so exhilarated, I didn't want to slow down. I was so happy up to that point with what I was watching, I actually stopped and thought to myself - "what the hell is going to come next?" Well, my question was slowly answered as the movie turned into 2 different plots. 1) the investigation of Whip being an alcoholic and drunk while flying, and 2) his relationship with a junkie he randomly met in a hospital stairwell. This is where Flight crashes for the second time, except this time it's not phenomenal, it's not exhilerating, it's actually rather dull and shallow.

A lot of people will watch this movie and be amazed by Denzel Washington's acting. They should. He finally stepped up to the plate and delivered a performance to go along with Training Day and American Gangster that I can actually source when talking about him as a serious actor that branches into a variety of great roles. I'm happy with that. But, his acting didn't blind me from the story's flaws.

Flight suffers from a severely poor climax. The entire movie Whip chooses to drink. There is a scene where he yells out numerous times "I choose to drink!" and explains all of the stuff he's lost. Then he continues to yell that he chooses to drink. He's given numerous opportunities to stop drinking, he's given many wake up calls, and when it matters the ABSOLUTE most to stop (no pun intended), he doesn't. That's why when he actually does quit, and it's for such a weak reason, the journey of him overcoming his addiction is capped off by an action that is not only something I didn't truly believe, but also something that was really anti-climactic. The end felt rushed and that's saying something in a 2 hour and 18 minute movie, but I felt they spent way too much time dealing with things that didn't matter rather than constructing a satisfying ending where our hero literally takes the reins of his addiction and drives it off a cliff.

They also chose to explore a new relationship, with a new character as flawed as he is, that takes us nowhere. I don't mean to spoil things, but this character leaves him and never comes back. We actually don't see her again aside from a picture at the end that Whip has. She didn't help him, she just ran away. Her purpose to the story? Still trying to figure it out. This sucks because her role is quite a large chunk of the plot. Probably should have spent more time on his ex-wife and son, considering that is his main problem/solution he needs to control in the movie outside of his alcoholism.

Consensus... well, Flight did have some interesting scenes, some funny scenes, some intense scenes, and two powerhouse performances from Denzel Washington and Robert Zemeckis, but ultimately this film suffers from a lack of pace, a confused subplot, and an really anticlimactic payoff that didn't seem real. Was it a bad movie? No, but I didn't think it was a good movie either.

The only thing I can do now is say it's worth the watch, because this movie wasn't for me, but others may enjoy it for what it does actually deliver.

6/10