Review - Flight (2012)

Starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle and John Goodman.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Flight is one of those movies that have been receiving a lot of Oscar buzz lately and when I finally saw it, I was left utterly underwhelmed and disappointed. The story basically follows Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington), a drug and alcohol addict who surprisingly holds a high-end job as an airline pilot. One morning before his flight, Whip gets high and drunk but it is pretty much something he is accustomed to doing. However during this particular flight, the aircraft malfunctions and Whip pulls off an incredible stunt to save the lives of most of his passengers on board. Afterwards, Whip is hailed as a hero but that quickly changes when it is found out that he was intoxicated on the flight. Facing prison time, Whip, his lawyer Hugh (Don Cheadle) and associate Charlie (Bruce Greenwood) must do all they can to prove his innocence.

I must say that the opening scene where the plane crashed was pretty impressive and very tense but after that, Flight took an unsuspected turn that I didn't really like. The transition from Whip being praised as a hero to him being classed as a villain was a little off. The storyline after the crash scene became a bit too simple and shallow and while I was watching, I just felt that there was something missing. Yes we saw the meltdown of an alcoholic but that was pretty much expected. There should have been more to the story. For instance, I think the writers should have given us more story in regards to his wife and son.

Characters were underused in this movie as well. John Goodman's role and even Kelly Reilly's role could have been much more effective in regards to the story. The story should have been getting tense and thrilling leading up to the hearing but instead we are just wobbling over and over and over again with a drunk Whip. They should have made his legal issues the main highlight of this film because by time the hearing scene came along, the movie had lost all its steam which pretty much contributed to its anti-climatic ending.

Denzel Washington gave us a good performance as well as the rest of the cast. Kudos to John Goodman on his enjoyable comedic performance and that cancer patient at the hospital, he pretty much stole the show for me in his brief appearance. Decent start but the story became pretty lacking and predictable as it went along.

Rating: 5/10



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