 Tagline: Brace for impact. Academy Award winner Denzel Washington stars in this "riveting and powerful nail-biting thriller" (Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood) from Robert Zemeckis, the Academy Award-winning director of Forrest Gump and Cast Away. Airline pilot Whip Whitaker (Washington) miraculously lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe. But even as he's being hailed for his heroic efforts, questions arise as to who or what was really at fault. Action-packed, engrossing and powerful, Washington's performance is being hailed as "a triumph" (Richard Corliss, Time) and one that "will be talked about for years" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stones). Storyline: Whip Whitaker is a commuter airline pilot. While on a flight from Orlando to Atlanta something goes wrong and the plane starts to fly erratically. With little choice Whip crashes the plane and saves almost all on board. When he wakes up in the hospital, his friend from the airline union introduces him to a lawyer who tells him there's a chance he could face criminal charges because his blood test reveals that he is intoxicated with alcohol and cocaine. He denies being impaired, so while an investigation is underway, he is told to keep his act together. However, letting go of his addiction is not as easy as it seems... Written by Immanuel Ambhara Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, January 24, 2013 -- Brace for impact. -- Airline pilots are sort of like the mystery men of the universe. They're the people who perform one of the most important tasks in the world, with so much power and precious cargo behind them, yet rarely do they even enter more than the subconscious of those who place their lives in the pilot's hands when they board his plane, and never mind those people thousands of feet below the air traffic lanes who are one mishap away from being the unwitting target of what amounts to a giant out-of-control missile. The good news is that most pilots are so good at their jobs, so calm under pressure, so skilled in their craft, so carefully checked out, and outright honorable people that rarely do they make the news, and if they do it's sometimes even for their skill in averting disaster, not partaking in or outright causing it. Director Robert Zemeckis's (Forrest Gump) Flight tells the story of one pilot's brush with death and the aftermath of a disaster in which most walked away unscathed thanks to his unparalleled skill and courage behind the stick. But for the pilot, walking away from the crash means both walking towards and ultimately with his deepest, darkest personal demons that haunt him with every step of his newfound celebrity and confronting truths that so badly want to see the light of day no matter the personal, emotional, financial, or public image cost to a nation, an industry, or a man. William "Whip" Whitaker (Denzel Washington, Man on Fire) is a perpetually drunk and often high on cocaine airline pilot. He sleeps with his most attractive stewardess and on a regular basis operates the vehicle under the influence of any number of substances. But liquor and cocaine are what keep Whip going; he's largely non-functional without them, and the substances have yet to interrupt normal flight operations. But today he'll face the ultimate test of his skill. He and co-pilot Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty, The Hurt Locker) -- who is wary of Whip's physical condition -- take off from a stormy Orlando for a quick jump across state lines to Atlanta. Whip uses some daring flying to maneuver the plane through a heavy rainstorm but succeeds in breaking through to clear skies with only a few rattled passengers to show for it. Whip falls asleep for much of the rest of the flight but is awakened when trouble strikes. The plane suffers damage and falls into an uncontrollable descent. Whip's quick thinking and ingenious flying keep the plane in the air just long enough to crash it into an empty field where he and the majority of his passengers and crew are pulled safely from the wreckage. Whip awakens in the hospital to television news of the crash and the face of his old friend Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood, Star Trek), an airline union representative working on Whip's behalf. Whip's come out largely unscathed, the same of which may be said for the vast majority of those on the flight. While in the hospital, Whip meets Nicole (Kelly Reilly, Sherlock Holmes), a burned-out drug addict with an angry landlord, a broken-down car, and little hope for her future. The two begin an intimate relationship upon Whip's release, but while Nicole tries to clean herself up, Whip continues to abuse drugs and alcohol, a real problem for his criminal negligence attorney Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle, Reign Over Me) whose job is to push aside claims that theorize or prove incorrect lab tests that show Whip's blood-alcohol content was well over the legal limit at the time of the crash. As Hugh and Charlie prepare Whip to testify in front of the National Transportation Safety Board, he must clean himself up and abstain from alcohol and hard drugs or else lose everything he has, wash away all the public support and notoriety at his disposal, and face manslaughter charges for his role in the crash and intoxication at the time thereof. Flight is a take-no-prisoners, hardball-playing human drama that ranks amongst the finest character studies to come out of Hollywood in quite a while. The film is an absorbing and steady look into a life fueled by alcohol, damaged by drugs, and taken by tobacco. So far gone is the character that he can only break free from the grasp of one substance by ingesting another. The film finds its core thematic element in Whip's position as a gifted pilot of an ill-fated airliner, and a hero pilot at that, but Flight is truly more a character drama than it is a story of technical difficulties or the outward media and investigative aftermath of a downed airplane. It's a movie with no big revelations and no sneaky twists and turns. It's a remarkably straightforward picture about one man's struggles with addiction, with himself, and with the world that wants to help him -- to paint him as a hero, even -- but from which he wants to slink away and avoid the inevitable confrontation over who he is, what he does, and some of the truths behind that fateful crash. It's in that absolute simplicity in which Flight finds much of its brilliance. This isn't the Hollywood of today, a movie shaped by special effects (though there are some amazingly harrowing visuals around the crash), excess violence, absurd comedy, or dishonest drama. Flight takes off -- and soars -- thanks to a stable, grounded approach, a brutally honest and linear look at a life in turmoil. The film embraces realism -- real tragedies, real addictions, real successes, real failures -- and from that realism comes a genuinely gripping tale that drifts fairly far from the Hollywood norm but nevertheless captures the real power of the cinematic medium. Yet for how powerfully straightforward the story may be, it's Denzel Washington's master performance that seals the deal and elevates Flight into "elite" status. This is Washginton's best work since his Oscar-winning effort in Training Day. He plays a man in a perpetual haze but with a firm grasp of his faculties even under immediate danger or emotional pressure, at least so long as he keeps his system packed with illicit drugs and alcohol. It's so much a part of Whip's life that he can keep control and display enough clarity to keep the lie going, to keep telling it to himself and selling it to everyone around him. Washington's character's journey throughout the film is one of heartbreak and disbelief. Washington falls into character so well that it's hard to believe he's not a longtime substance abuser. Washington nevertheless keeps the audience rooting him on to abstain from drink or drugs and to turn his life around. It's a sign of a first-rate performance, great writing, and knowing direction that the audience can become so emotionally invested in hoping for inaction rather than action to keep a movie not only afloat, but thriving. Flight does just that; audiences will crave the absence of conflict -- openly cheer for it -- and becomes distressed when there is conflict. That's superb filmmaking and an uncanny grasp on difficult but compelling material. The picture also features excellent work by Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood, but John Goodman steals all of his scenes as a boisterous drug dealer and longtime friend of Washington's character; his screen presence dominates and his work commands more notoriety than it's received. Flight is a remarkable picture starring arguably the most talented actor of the past two-plus decades and directed by one of Hollywood's best, a man who understands the ins-and-outs of the human drama as well as any filmmaker alive, evidenced by such masterpieces as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and now Flight. The film is perfectly acted and flawlessly written. Its ability to tell a story in which the audience hopes for inaction rather than action makes it a unique and highly satisfying human interest tale about a very personal struggle with demons and an effort to avoid the bright spotlight of modern media and, more importantly, the reflection in the mirror and the tell-tale signs of a soul in peril. The film ends beautifully, summing up the experience in a single question and the first step towards an answer. This is one of 2012's finest, a picture that's grossly under-represented on the list of Oscar nominees. Paramount's Blu-ray release of Flight could use a more through supplemental section, but the video and audio presentations are flawless. Despite a disappointing lack of extras, this release comes very highly recommended. [CSW] -4.0- This is one of the best films about an alcoholic drug abuser where the combination of those two things helped in one situation but destroyed in all the others. Although touted as an exciting plane-in-distress film which it partly true, but to a much larger extent it is really a mature drama. It did win Denzel and an Academy Award nomination. It also remind me of someone I knew. Cast Notes: Nadine Velazquez (Katerina Marquez), Denzel Washington (Whip Whitaker), Carter Cabassa (Son on Plane), Adam C. Edwards (Father on Plane [as Adam Ciesielski]), Tamara Tunie (Margaret Thomason), Brian Geraghty (Ken Evans), Kelly Reilly (Nicole), Conor O'Neill (Kip), Charlie E. Schmidt (Tiki Pot), Will Sherrod (Schecter), Boni Yanagisawa (Camelia Satou), Adam Tomei (Fran), Dane Davenport (Derek Hogue), John Crow (Field Reporter), Bruce Greenwood (Charlie Anderson). IMDb Rating (07/01/14): 8.1/10 from 74,451 users
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