Flight

I've just got back from watching Flight, the new drama starring Denzel Washington. Washington plays Whip Whitaker, a veteran airline pilot, on a routine flight from Orlando to Atlanta. During the flight, there's a major fault with the plane, and it goes into a nose dive. Whip manages to correct the dive, taking the plane away from population centres, and allowing him to put the plane down in a field, with minimal loss of life. Very classic Sully like stuff.

Except that before the flight we've already discovered the Whip has been drinking, snorting cocaine and sleeping with one of the stewardesses mere hours before take off. Also, he actually takes a drink during the flight. After a crash comes an investigation, and this is the problem, as for everyone involved it's a question of pass the blame-parcel, to which "Alcoholic Coke Fuelled Pilot" is catnip.

It's obstensibly the story of a plane crash, but it's actually the story of a man fighting his demons, and that's where it went off the rails for me. It probably doesn't reflect well on me, but the impression I got from the character was of someone not willing to face up to his responsibilities, rather than someone being overwhelmed by their flaws. There's no real explanation for why he's an alcoholic - in fact, the film makes efforts to refute the classic shorthand reasoning behind alcoholism by showing Whip's very good childhood. Sure, Washington puts in an excellent performance, but there's just something off in it. The film also seems very long, and this from someone who didn't mind the length of the Hobbit!

Overall, it's a decent, if slightly predictable and drawn out piece, that seems primarially to have been designed to grab Denzel Washington an Oscar nod. Too bad he's up against Hugh Jackman's excellent Jean Valjean, and a bravura performance from Daniel Day Lewis.

6/10