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Denzel Washington portrays a troubled pilot in Flight which opens in cinemas today. The actor soars in a Robert Zemeckis film that impresses technically.
COKE, heroine, vodka – the list is long but there’s nothing quite like a shot of reality.
In Flight, we’re introduced to Whip Whitaker in a hotel room, after a night of sex, drugs, alcohol and little sleep. There’s a moment of amusement as he slips on his pilot jacket and sets off to work clearly intoxicated.
Quasi-humorous moments follow – Whip needs to “test” oxygen masks to help jolt him to life, he pours vodka into his orange juice as he addresses the cabin and after nothing short of an amazing ascent covers his eyelids with airline tickets (he uses his glasses to keep them in place) and takes a little nap midair.
However, under pressure he is a man of steel.
Whitaker is clearly flawed and equally talented.
It’s the ambivalence of his character that makes him so interesting and creates the central tension in the movie – for when the plane crashes and people die – a call must be made, is he the hero or the villain?
There’s that and the fact that Whitaker is played by Denzel Washington, one of Hollywood’s most compelling stars – who can sell a movie with his name alone.
He does an incredible job of being human, he shows the audience the boy who always dreamed of flying, the father who misses his son terribly and a man torn up by the fact that he was responsible for people’s lives and lost them.
Washington is convincing in the role and so is the cinematography. I couldn’t help but clutch my seat as the plane nose-dives to the ground.
Mind you, if you’re afraid of flying this film is not for you.
The film is brilliant on a technical level. It is also well cast.
British actress Kelly Reilly is cast as recovering addict Nicole Maggen. Their lives inevitably intersect and tell one story.
Bruce Greenwood is cast as the pilot union representative and Whitaker’s friend. Through his eyes we see moments that many of us have experienced in life – when we know good people who do stupid things or land in bad situations.
Kenneth Turan, at the Los Angeles Times, writes in his crit: “Flight gives the impression that it is going to concern itself with the nature of heroism, with the difficulty of reconciling heroic actions with fallible human qualities, but instead it heads in a more familiar and formulaic direction: Can Whitaker confront his demons and stop drinking long enough to avoid becoming his own worst enemy?”
There’s a moment in the later half of the film when the airline owner is talking about Whitaker, in a room from which they can see him but he can’t hear them. He asks the legal team, “Is he a drunk?”.
It’s mildly offensive as by now we the audience “know” him, he’s an alcoholic yet his character is far more complex and so was the crash. However, the judging line proves a point about addiction.
The film has a formidable supporting cast.
Don Cheadle is fitting as attorney Hugh Lang, brought in to help Whitaker with his defence, and John Goodman is hilarious as Whitaker’s friend.
For me the ending falls short of the film’s initial them , by drawing a tidy conclusion. We’re after all never one or the other – and in life we find people are often a concoction of both good and bad.
Also opening this week is the highly anticipated Argo, the story of the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis – the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades.
The cast includes Ben Affleck (who directed the film as well ), Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman.
Rating: 7/10.
New on circuit today is also Lawless, a film about outlaws who became heroes.
The true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers: bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. In this epic gangster tale, inspired by true-life tales, the loyalty of three brothers is put to the test against the backdrop of the nation’s most notorious crime wave.
The cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke and Guy Pearce. It is directed by John Hillcoat.
New in Bollywood is Race2, set in the lush locales of exotic Europe, with a backdrop of gambling and casinos. A fast-paced thriller that takes the legacy of Race forward, with explosive action, thrills, twists and edge-of-the-seat excitement.
The cast includes Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel. It is directed by Abbas Mustan.
The animated film Wreck-it Ralph also opens today.
Wreck-It Ralph longs to be as beloved as his game’s perfect good guy, Fix-It Felix. The problem is that nobody loves a bad guy. But, they do love heroes.
So, when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun, Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan – win a medal, but he soon wrecks everything, and accidently unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade.
Ralph’s only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz, a young troublemaking “glitch” from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a good guy.
