Flight

Ratings: 7.7/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Drama

After miraculously saving an airplane from crashing with a feat only possible by veteran pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington), he lands himself in a more life threatening situation, the trial of his alcohol addiction.

Flight is a difficult movie to watch. Landing a plane to safety in the most incredibly unbelievable way possible is only a mask for this dark and depressing movie about an alcoholic's messed up life. It's more of a film on character study, on the damaging, twisted, and almost schizophrenic lives of alcoholics living in self deceit. Ok, maybe I'm being a little too harsh here, not all alcholics are out of control, but Whip Whitaker's life sure is. His addiction damages his relationship with others, though initially not explicitly shown, the story gradually unravels this seemingly intriguing character who by first impression, is an obnoxiously optimisitic guy. 

*spoilers ahead* The audience will soon be up for a treat, because 25 minutes into the movie, this seemingly optimistic guy shows his true inner self.

I was actually rather surprised at how the mood could turn around so drastically, but am impressed that the director did it with such finesse it didn't feel forced and I was happily (ironically speaking) and willingly drawn right in. 

I thought the ending scene was very powerful, with lack of a better word to describe it. Not the kind of Thor powerful which blasts you to another universe (ok, I'm being lame here, but not as lame as Denzel Washington after the plane crash), but the kind which really makes you think. 

*major major spoilers ahead* During his trial, the evidence seemed to be tweaked, even though it was presented by a supposedly partial NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) lead investigator, Ellen Block. Even though she did at times prompted Whip to confess his crime, it was unclear why the fingers were pointed at his love interest instead. He was having an intimate relationship with an air stewardess, who unfortunately died in the plane crash. There was no hint that she was even alcoholic, till the very end when the lead investigator presented that "fact". 

I believe that scene hinted at how the facts were manipulated by the airline's top man, to save the company's reputation as was seen in an earlier scene but somehow there wasn't any follow-up... How he manipulated it? Bribery of course. I'm not sure if the ending scene did imply that, but whatever it is, as what it looked on the surface, Whip's courage to own up was a killer moment in the film. Don't get me wrong, it didn't kill the film, it nailed it. It was like the epic ending scene from A Time to Kill.

There were also other subplots, like Whip's next love interest who was also an addict, a drug addict, and his hippy brother, played by John Goodman, which deceiving looked trivial but was necessary to the story progression. 

Flight was yet another emo-fying movie that affected my happiness meter for that day, but was packed with enough engine power to impress my worn-out mind from a hard day's work.