REVIEW: Flight

There are no spoilers in this review.

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

THE GOOD: Acting. Flight probably would not be very good without its great performance by Denzel Washington. You really can't go wrong with the guy. His character's story gets so personal that you feel like you know everything about him. Brave when he has to be, frightened when he's in trouble, and stupid all of the other times, this is one of Washington's best roles. As for the rest of the cast, Don Cheadle plays a conservative, yet tricky lawyer. It's always nice to see Bruce Greenwood on screen. Kelly Reilly plays opposite Denzel Washington, and does so with such tenderness. And finally John Goodman appears, but I notice he's starting to be typecasted into these goofy, wise-cracking fat guy roles.

Don't be fooled by this picture. The movie is really just a giant AA infomercial... with planes.

Robert Zemeckis. This is Robert Zemeckis' first live-action film since 2000's Cast Away. Between now and then, he's been working on his motion-capture animation films like The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol. I complained in my Christmas Carol review that I'm ready for Zemeckis to move on and back to live-action filmmaking. Some folks were worried about his return to the real world, but they must have easily forgotten that Zemeckis is one of the great directors of our time. This is the man behind two of my most favorite films, Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. Now, Flight is not going to match the greatness of those movies, but it's great directing, nonetheless. The plane crash is one of the most intense I've ever seen. I also loved towards the end how everything looked to be turning around, but it just gets bad again.

Message. Flight is about substance abuse more than it is about the plane crash. But without the plane crash, we wouldn't have what the movie is truly about, and that's admitting when you have a problem. I appreciated this as it was not what I expected. Both the previews and marketing make this out to be more of a hero story when it is actually far from it.

DENZEL WASHINGTON: "Huh... that cloud looks kind of like a bunny rabbit."
...
"I want a beer."

THE BAD: Long. Flight is 138 minutes long, which is not terrible, but for a heavy-handed film like this, it can become straining. There's a lot of build up in the middle and some of the sequences seem a little too long (that hospital stairwell scene was killing me). Shave off a good 15 minutes or so and I would have liked it a lot more.


THE END: Flight is a good movie, but it's not something that I would likely watch again. Denzel is great and I'm looking forward to more of Zemeckis' work, but the heavy themes drags it down a bit for me. It's worth seeing, but maybe as a rental. 


DISCUSS: What did you think of Flight? Was the movie what you expected? What did you think of the acting? What is your favorite Denzel Washington performance?

DON CHEADLE: *whispers to Denzel* "If you want any chance of getting out of this entire ordeal, let the white guy speak."