Flightplan is the latest thriller by Robert Schwentke. Too bad its not as good as some of his previous work. A good example is Tatoo, which held disturbing and mysterious figures making it a stellar thriller with a nice dark atmosphere. His latest directorial job, was written by Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray.
This latest endeavor, however, does not fly as high as you might want. Especially with Red Eye having been released a short period of time before this movie, it made the concept seem “Been There.. Done That”. With the exception of a strong performance by Jodie Foster, “Flightplan” fails in its flight. Holding a wide variety of plot holes and lacking credibility.. this movie is made only for those who are heavy fans of Lady Foster.
The Story
Taking flight in a recently created 474 aircraft at 40,000 feet, Kyle Pratt (played by Jodie Foster)comes face to face with the one thing that is a mothers greatest fear. This nightmare occurs when her 6 yrs old, daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) vanished inside of a flight from Berlin to New York.
Already filled with stress and devastation because of the recent unexpected death of her husband, Kyle is confronted with having to prove her sanity to the flight crew and passengers. This is because they all believe that she has gone insane. Now with that happening, she is faced with struggling to look for her daughter, and fighting off the possibility that she may be losing her mind.
While neither the plane’s Captain (Sean Bean), or Gene Carson the Air-Marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) want to doubt her. Yet, all evidence point the arrow at the belief that her daughter was never boarded the plane to begin with. This all results in an uproar from the passengers and crew of the plane. Finding herself alone and fighting for her sanity, Kyle Pratt can only lean on her own smarts and understanding to solve the so called mystery and recuperate her daughter.
Flightplan as a whole is not a bad movie. It is very average. The movie is half way decent… but it’s the other half that you have to worry about. As a thriller it holds minor amount of thriller in it. Mostly, it hold plot holes that you find it hard to get over. I hate it when a movie like this, holding a so called mystery, gives you an ending with certain occurrences that you just have to accept. Their is no reason to believe what occurred… you just assume it.
You assume that it fits.. but no explanation is given. That is what you get in a couple spots. It just does not add up in the end. Thats part of my gripe for the ending. When you look at it as a whole, its not a total disappointment, but you still end up thinking “Been There Done That”. You just get nothing special in the end, besides a great performance from Jodie Foster. Also, like it has been mentioned in many places before, she gave a better version of this performance in Panic Room.
The People In It
I love Jodie Foster. That is why, I don’t think this is a “bad” movie. Her alone makes a worthy watch for those who are Foster Fans. As a mother going crazy over the loss of her child, she gives a strong and emotional performance. As usual she is a delight to watch on screen. If you watched her in Panic Room and liked her, then viewing this will be as pleasant. Actually, if you did not mind the mild ending of that movie… then watch this one.
The rest of the cast was on target with their characters. The direction and the cast is not the down fall in this movie. Starting with Traffic alumni Erika Christensen she played the mumbling and fumbling, flight attendant called Fiona quite well. Sean Bean playing the air captain was also crisp and just what the doctor ordered. Peter Sarsgaard gives us a second dose of what we got in “Garden State”, as an air-marshal he was a scowl faced despondent being that made his tuff character real.
Instead of Taking This Flight go With Some Panic in a Room
In the end, what really hits you is the bad feeling in your mouth. You think that its delivery was fair but nothing special was attached to it. The cinematography, acting, and directing were average if not slightly above.. but you still have that “regular run of the reel” feeling with it. So if you are looking for something original or greatly different, Flightplan will give you little of it. Its not a bad movie.. but its a skip and a jump from being uninteresting. Now if you base you view, solely on Jodie Foster then you should definitely watch it. For her performance is the only thing that is outstanding about this flight movie flick.
