Flight review

              Under the wing of Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemekis began his legacy in the 80’s with family oriented special effects movies like “Back to the Future” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. His carreer expanded into the 90’s where he began to make different kinds of movies like “Death Becomes Her” and “Forrest Gump”, which of course won the best picture award.  Unfortunately, since he has discovered the art of motion capture animation in the 2000’s—exclusively making tech-demo, kid-flicks like “The Polar Express” and “The Christmas Carol”--Zemeckis’s unique point of view has been fading, resulting in films that may be technically impressive, but are rather bland and banal compared to his classic work.  With his most recent film “Flight” Zemeckis returns to directing human beings in a non CGI world and dives nose first back into deep character work, creating maybe his best film since Gump back in 1994.

                “Flight” tells the story of a Whip Whitaker (played by Denzel Washington), a commercial airline pilot who has a penchant for self-destructive drinking and drug use. One morning a malfunction causes his plane to drastically drop in altitude. Whitaker wakes up out of his discreet hangover and is able to safely crash the plane into a field, saving most of the lives of those on board—leaving only 6 dead.  When he awakes, he is immediately thrown into a media blitz where he is being hailed as a hero and genius. At the same time, he is quietly fighting accusations by his company’s insurance lawyers that he may have been intoxicated while flying.

                Everything that I have described above is what you can see in the trailer, and on a surface level that’s the general plot of the movie. However, what the trailers hide is that this is a very reflective and thorough character study about addiction, denial, and self-betrayal—exploring the fact that being gifted doesn’t always make you a role model.  The plane crash sequence is really the only major special effects moment in the movie, and as exciting as it is, it happens within the first 20 minutes. What follows are the day-to-day experiences of a man who is defeated by his own demons, struggling to pull it together when he needs to more than ever before.   Another major plot point, completely eluded from the trailers, is a subplot dealing with a heroin addicted love interest named Nicole (Kelly Reilly), who decides to kick her habits in face of Whip’s insurmountable compulsions.

                Though there is a wonderful and eclectic supporting cast, including John Goodman, Don Cheadle, and Bruce Greenwood, this movie is basically an actor’s platform for Denzel Washington, exploring the depths of what he is emotionally able to capture. The movie completely succeeds at doing this as he must convincing play drunk, sober, sad, arrogant, regretful, and charming, all at the same time—sometimes within the same scene.  It’s a high water mark for a well-vetted actor who’s had many other notable career moments, and it’s sure to garner him with some award consideration.

                Where the movie occasionally deflates for me is when the center of consciousness shifts a bit too much from Washington. There are vague allusions to spirituality and religion that are never fully earned or integrated as a valid theme, often feeling shoehorned into the narrative. The b-plot with his heroin-girlfriend also seems somewhat distracting when it’s there and eventually drops out of the story all together, as if the movie itself knew that it wasn’t really working. Also, the moral messaging is laid on a bit too thick by the end of movie, when its themes have already been made abundantly clear by the actions of Washington’s character. But even when it fails it does so with the good intensions, leaving the movie a tolerable 20-30 minutes too long.

                The lesson that should be learned from “Flight” is that motion capture characters can never show real expressions or convey real emotions better than just pointing a camera at an actor and letting him/her be in the moment.  It was never the technology behind “Back to the Future” or “Rodger Rabbit” that kept us watching those films over and over. Movies are about connecting with the characters and being successfully transported into their stories. In this regard, though it’s not without its imbalances and a misgiving, “Flight” shows Zemeckis finally on the right trajectory.

Grade: B+

Originally published in The Basic Alternative/Dec-2012