Blu-ray Review: Flight

Flight
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Screenplay by: John Gatins
Paramount Pictures

In Flight, Denzel Washington plays boozer alcoholic jet pilot Whip Whitaker, who is always living on the edge of disaster. Frequently before flights, he drinks himself into oblivion, then snorts lines of cocaine to get himself in shape to fly. This occurs sometimes less than an hour before taking the lives of his crew and passengers into his hands.

In the opening minutes of the film, Whip's routine jet flight takes a turn for the deadly when his plane carrying 102 passengers experiences a mechanical failure which causes it to nosedive towards the ground. Making an unorthodox and risky aerial manuever, Whip is able to crashland the plane with minImal loss of life. Of course, after the accident, a NTSB investigation team arrives and one of the first things they find is that Whip's blood shows that he was intoxicated and high on cocaine at the time of the crash. Suffice it to say, things don't look good for Whip.

Flight asks a great question of the viewer. Should Whip get out of his predicament because he saved the lives of almost all of his passengers and crew, or should he be punished for his substance abuse? It's a tough question, and it's one that Denzel's character wrestles with most of the movie. I mean, yeah, he might be able to beat the charges and walk away a hero, but then again, if he gets off, eventually his boozing and drugging are going to get people killed. It's just a matter of time. It's an age old question really. Does one heroic act make up for criminal behavior? Should he be forgiven? Should he be able to beat the system? Does his saving of 96 lives make up for the fact that over his career, he has put thousands if not tens of thousands of lives at risk? The more I think about it, to me the answer is NO.

Denzel Washington has been nominated for Best Actor for his role as Whip, and I would have to say he might win it, because the Academy has a soft spot for roles portraying drug addicts and the mentally and physically disabled. But he's gonna face stiff competition in the form of Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln, who I predict will ultimately win the Award.

The problem with Flight is that too often when Denzel gets drunk in this movie, it almost comes off as comedy or even a parody of alcoholism. It isn't helped by John Goodman's farcical take on a drug supplier that makes the audience laugh. Some people say it's not pleasant to be around a drunk. I would codify that more. It's ANNOYING. They get on your nerves. Everytime Whip got wasted in Flight, I was rolling my eyes and muttering "OMG, do I have to see this AGAIN!". When you see him fall into a coffee table, instead of being horrified, it strikes you as akin to a Saturday Night Live sketch.

There's also an underlying religious theme at work in Flight. Time and again we are reminded that God Himself is making this movie happen. That God caused the deaths of the innocent people on the plane just so Whip could be taught a lesson. That part came off as so much hogwash. That God would allow people to die just so a drunk scumbag could see the truth of his life. Ugh.

It was nice to see Bob Zemeckis try his hand again at live action moviemaking instead of his bizarre and disturbing experimentation with performance capture, which I feel had driven him to a 10 year dead end. He's like George Lucas, but to an even worse extreme. But unlike George, I feel that Bob could return to making good movies if he tried. Much like Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi in the gloriously flawed Prometheus, I think Bob is rusty at doing what he used to be one of the best at. Here's hoping his next film will be better.

My Grade: C-