Prime Oscar bait Flight
is Director Robert Zemeckis’ return to live action following more than a decade
producing animated and computer generated movies. The movie tells the story of
a crashed aircraft and the following weeks for its functioning alcoholic pilot
(Whip Whitaker) Denzel Washington. Whip is a well trained and long serving
pilot who has got by all throughout his adult life despite being drunk and
stoned everyday. On the morning of the fated flight he is seen drinking beer
and vodka and snorting cocaine and even drinks vodka during the fifty minute
flight. Despite some miraculous instinct and skill which manages to save many
lives Whip is due in front of a tribunal with a failed toxicology report
hanging over his head.
It’s fair to say that Flight
is one of the weaker of the Oscar season films and the intense crash and
admirable Washington
performance are all that separate it from mediocrity. The movie is full of
religious babble, poorly chosen music and a code era ending which make the excellent
opening instantly forgettable and sets up an hour and a half which passes the
time but does little to induce much of an emotional response past the odd laugh
and one tense moment.
