Flight (2012)

Flight (2012)

7/10

Starring

Denzel Washington

Don Cheadle

Kelly Reilly
John Goodman

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Personal internal struggle is something we all go through at one time in our lives. How we choose to handle it is what differentiates us from addicts and the mentally depressed.

Flight is about such a struggle, and the movie takes us through the downs of addiction, the repercussions it has on your life, and the lives of those who care about you. Robert Zemeckis takes us on a ride through emotional struggles with a strong cast featuring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, and John Goodman. Flight takes off smoothly and maintains a nice ride through the skies of drama, landing safely with you feeling fulfilled.

The movie’s main scene, where Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) takes off and lands the plane during its steep nose dive, was engaging and a terrific introduction to a great movie.

The movie also has some comic moments that will make you laugh out loud.

The plot centers around Captain Whip Whitaker, who lands a plane that is about to crash in a heroic and unexplainable way—something even 10 top pilots using simulators were unable to do.

His heroic landing saves the lives of 96 out of the 102 on board, but there’s a problem. While on the flight, Whip was on cocaine and drunk, which the NTSB plans to use against him, trying to pin the plane's crash and the deaths on him.

Now, with a top lawyer and an alcohol problem, Whip has to prove to a jury that he has no addiction problem.

Zemeckis had been away from live-action movies for 12 years, with one of his last live-action films being Cast Away with Academy Award winner Tom Hanks.

The movie's screenplay was written by John Gatins, who said that the dramatic fictional crash shown in the movie was "loosely inspired" by the 2000 crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261. The 2000 crash had no survivors, and the cause was a broken jackscrew. The pilot of the flight attempted to recover from the flight's loss of control by flying the aircraft upside down.

The actors in the movie were all in top form. Denzel, as usual, was at the top of his game, drawing you into the character with acting that is deserving of an Academy Award nomination. The screenplay is excellent, with each scene intense and filled with enough material to keep you awake.

Robert Zemeckis, the man behind Mars Needs Moms (2011), is also the director of classics like Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and the Back to the Future series.

Flight is a dramatic movie filled with emotional scenes depicting a man with a serious addiction problem, and it's a fun movie to watch and enjoy.