Away from live-action filmmaking for twelve years, Robert Zemeckis returns in much the same way he left it, with a horrific plane crash followed by intensely personal suffering. Zemeckis' last film to star actual human beings was 2000's Cast Away, a flawed but successful character study that saw Tom Hanks reach depths he hadn't previously. Denzel Washington plums some of those same dark emotional corners in Flight, but he isn't helped out by an uneven script and Zemeckis' trademark over-sentimentality.
Perhaps shaking off the cobwebs after immersing himself in family-friendly fare for more than a decade, Zemeckis opens flight with both a shocking amount of gratuitous nudity, followed up by one of the most horrific airplane crashes ever seen on the big screen. Those already averse to flying might want to stay home, or take a bathroom break. Zemeckis flexes his creative muscles during this scene, showing that the freedom of living in a world of animation for so long has opened him up to creative new ways of filming the destruction. But, as terrible as that scene is, it runs counter to the somewhat humorous scenes that immediately precede it, making for a tonal shift that is jarring to say the least.
Then, the engines die. Then the hydraulics. The plane goes into a horrible tailspin that should have killed them all, except for Whip's calm leadership and expert skill, coming up with an ingenious inverted aerial maneuver that landed them relatively safely. Of the 102 passengers on board, 96 survived. No one else could have pulled it off. They even run tests with other pilots to prove it.
Like the real life pilot Sully Sullenberger, Whip is hailed as a hero, but his addiction to drugs and alcohol still remain. As the media at first begins to sing his praises, the reality of the situation begins to unfold with the arrival of a pilot's union rep(Bruce Greenwood), and a union lawyer(Don Cheadle), who know the truth of Whip's intoxication that morning. As the legal storm begins to swirl, Whip doesn't take this or his near death experience as a sign to change his ways, but rather sinks further into his addiction. Even though it wasn't his fault the plane crashed, the media will have a feeding frenzy once all the information come to light, not to mention the liability faced by the airlines. Someone's got to be held accountable.
While Washington is typically fantastic in his angry portrayal of Whip, the screenplay by John Gatins tries to walk a delicate middle ground in how we should perceive him. Undoubtedly, the charismatic and affable Washington informs much of how we look at Whip. Even when he's staggering drunk or high it's hard not to like him. When he enters into a troubled relationship with Nicole(Kelly Reilly), a recovering heroin addict who takes the bull by the horns in mastering her problems, we expect that he'll follow her lead. But that doesn't happen at all. In fact, Whip only gets angrier and more stubborn, and there's very little attempt to explain the perpetual chip on his shoulder. Gatins, who most recently wrote the robot boxing flick Real Steel, shows little in the way of restraint or subtlety, in particular how God factors into the crash and whether or not it was some heavenly guidance that steered Whip in the right direction that fateful day. It's not clear whether religion is being made fun of or is to be taken at face value.But not everything that's wrong can be laid at the screenwriter's feet. Zemeckis sets an inconsistent tone from the start, and it only continues with the presence of Whip's boorish best friend, Harling Mays(John Goodman). A drug dealer who proudly enables Whip's addiction at every turn, but he's largely played up for laughs. When he turns up at a critical juncture later on, in what should have been a time of some serious decision making and hard truths, it's again a jokey affair that undermines so much.
Washington's incredibly nuanced character work goes along way in soothing the film's more glaring weaknesses, and it wouldn't be a shock to see him earn yet another Oscar nomination for the performance. After years of wasting away in shallow paycheck roles in generic thrillers, Washington proves he's still one of today's most compelling actors. While her character's storyarc largely hits a wall as the film's momentum slows to a crawl, Kelly Reilly more than holds her own opposite Washington in what could have been a thankless role. Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood are solid, but aren't given nearly enough to do. It's unclear what the point of Flight is meant to be, as the contrived conclusion twists into a pretzel for a schmaltzy and hopeful conclusion that is completely unearned. There's a great, morally ambiguous story here that never truly emerges. At best, Flight is a shaky ride that Washington steers to a bumpy and safe landing.
