"Can a man who saves lives, save his own"
THE PLOT:
An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.
MY THOUGHT:
I'm getting around to seeing the Oscar nominated films for this year now, and Flight is the second one I've seen so far(Django Unchained was the first, even though the nominations weren't announced at the time). I might say that I was very impressed with this movie from the opening scene with Whip Whitaker(Washington) and Trina (Nadine Velazquez) who are in a hotel room drinking, smoking, and doing drugs, this scene basically sets the landscape for what this movie is going to be like.
After a few minutes of this Washington exits the room in full Pilot mode in his uniform and a smile on his face, he arrives at the airport on a rainy but typical morning and his ready to fly, even though he's flying high already. he is greeted by stewardess one of which is Trina, he enters the cockpit and greets his young co pilot Ken (Brain Geraghy) they begin to get ready for takeoff after some awkwardness from Whitaker towards Ken.
The crew and all of the passengers are ready for take off, as the plane takes off they are met by trouble weather that helps set in motion one of the best sequences in recent movie history, after making their way threw the bad weather the plane begins to have trouble and goes into a dive, as Ken panics, Whip stays calm as everyone around him loses their cool, as he does some death defying things with a 747 airliner, namely flying the playing inverted for a while in order to help make it into a glider.
Whip is knocked out as the plane crash lands in a field near a church, he wakes up days later to find out that from his friend Charlie (Bruce Greenwood) that of the 102 people on the plane 6 of them died one of them being Trina, who helped saved a little boy when the plane was inverted.
Whip is shaken by this news, and he is looked at by the media and public as a hero for being able to do what he did, but with that heroic act comes an investigation into what really happened. Was it just a Malfunction that caused the crash or was it human error?
One thing I really enjoyed about this movie is the different themes and motifs that play threw out the movie, as we go on this journey with Whitaker who has a lot of personal demons that slowly are shown, and his road to redemption is one that most people can relate too.
Denzel Washington is very much so deserving of his Best Actor nomination as the anti hero pilot Whip Whitaker, he plays him like an actually person who needs help but doesn't want it and will fight you to say in his drug and alcoholic state of life even after going threw what some in the movie/real life as an act of god.
The supporting characters are played very well and placed around him to help him on to the right path and also keep on his self destruction path
1. Kelly Reilly(Nicole)
She's a recovering drug addict who overdoses and meets Whitaker at the hospital, and wants to help he get sober after her own act of god or moment of clarity.
2. John Goodman (Harling)
He is Whitaker's good friend who will help him in anyway he can regardless if its the right thing or wrong thing to do.
3. Bruce Greenwood (Charlie)
He is a old friend and now co worker who works for the airline that is being investigated about the doomed flight.
4. Don Cheadle (Hugh)
He is a Lawyer who is brought in to defend Whitaker from being the blame for the crash and to prove it was equipment malfunctions or whatever else he can say is the blame.
5. Brian Geraghy (Ken)
He is the nervous young co pilot who believes that even thought Whitaker was drunk don't believe that anybody else could've did what he did to land the plane and prays with Whitaker for him and everything to turn out good in the end.
6. Tamara Tunie (Margaret)
She is a long time co workers and friend, who knows of Whitaker's personal problems but wouldn't do anything to bring him down.
7. Nadine Velazquez (Trina)
She is Whitaker's girlfriend who he was with the night before the crash drinking and smoking with all night, and dies in the crash, her death plays a big role in Whitaker's road to redemption
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you're someone who likes true to life movies, this is the movie for you, very well acted with stand out performances from Denzel Washington of course, and Kelly Reilly who i would like to see more of and hopefully with this movie we will.
For this to have been Robert Zemeckis first live action movie in a number of years it doesn't seem like he has forgotten anything and it'll be good to see more live action features from him as well.
I recommend seeing this movie to everyone. Rent or Buy it Stream it if you must as long as you see it.
MY RATING
8/10
