Prior to seeing Flight, I thought it was just going to be another ordinary guy-turned-hero movie. You know the type: characters get stuck in a scary situation, the main character saves the day, and everyone throws a parade for him at the end. But Flight is filled with much more than that.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Forest Gump, Castaway) and starring the ever-versatile Denzel Washington, Flight starts its first half action-packed. Washington plays airline pilot Whip Whitaker who is flying his 106 passengers to Atlanta when danger ensues. Due to a mechanical error, the plane starts to nosedive in the direction of a residential neighborhood. While passengers, flight attendants, and the assistant pilot panic, Whip is able to devise a plan under the pressure as he turns the plane upside down and crashes into a field.
With most of the passengers and crew coming out alive, Whip is hailed as a hero. But an investigation of the crash uncovers that the pilot had alcohol and drugs in his system at the time.
The second half of the movie suddenly turns Whip from a hero to an antihero, as he avoids the media and a trial by hiding out in his father’s old house in the country. Not convinced that he is an alcoholic, Whip drowns out denial by consuming multiple bottles of alcohol a day. Loved ones try to persuade him to seek help, including Whip’s girlfriend Nicole, who is recovering from an addiction of her own. But Whip refuses to listen, and eventually pushes them away.
By being the star of the show, Denzel Washington owns it, bringing so much life to his character that you start believing he could be a real person. Washington also adds likeability to Whip, because even when he acts like a jerk, you still want to root for him to get his act together.
The supporting cast also shines, as Kelly Reilly plays Nicole, and Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood star as his lawyer and colleague. John Goodman brings a few laughs in this otherwise serious film, as Whip’s eccentric drug dealer friend.
Flight is a well-made film and is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. The only problem here is that the addiction story ends up being too predictable. But a twist near the ending of the movie saves Flight from teetering to the ground to soaring.
Grade: B+