Flightplan: Not necessarily as bad as you've heard
I went to see Flightplan with the French exchange student on Sunday. And, as the title suggests, I was pretty impressed. Because, really, how DO you lose a little girl on a huge jumbo jet? As one extra in the movie snorts, "It's a big tube." I was wondering about that as we sat down, and thought, Well, if the team can pull it off, all righty. If not... well, I had been warned.
Jodie Foster (Kyle Pratt) does a good job with showing derangement, which is a good thing. Otherwise, this would have been a difficult movie to sit through. She shows off her linguistic versatility once more (see my first post), speaking German at the very beginning of the movie. And her portrait of the mother/engineer-worried-sick-over-her-child is well played. I sure wouldn't want to be on a plane with someone like her.
The captain is played by Sean Bean, just the right mix of "DAMN, why do I always get the crazies?" and "Right, down to business. Follow procedure. I mean it. Otherwise you never fly with me again."
And, ah yes, the air marshal (Clayton) is played by Peter Sarsgaard. I can't really say anything about his character, for fear of spoiling the entire movie for you.
The flight attendants are, mercifully, unlike any flight attendant I've ever encountered. They form a pack of snarling, unbelieving hyenas, and are generally much like any Alpha Clique of females in your typical American high school.
So, let's get back to the plot. It gets pretty long and drawn out, especially when Kyle insists on the full search of the ENTIRE aircraft. Over. And over. And over. Then interrogates flight attendant after flight attendant, gets in the captain's face, and then goes after the flight attendants again. The fellow passengers are generally as annoying a mix as you generally get in economy class on an overseas flight, right down to the fighting pre-adolescent siblings. The Fat Mustachioed Man is pretty annoying, put there to help distract you and start the requisite rumble in any action movie that occurs in a VERY close space. And The Psychiatrist is so incredibly patronizing and, well, psychiatrist-y that you'll want to root for Kyle to turn around and say something like, "Your analysis has been so incredibly right-on.... *SMACK* (as Kyle smacks The Psychiatrist into a week from tomorrow)".
Just when you start checking your watch and thinking to yourself, "Okay, Captain, will you PLEASE take the plane down and make the crazy lady go away?", hang on. They're not done with you yet. There's a pretty ingenious plot twist that will leave you somewhat agog. Plan on spending the last 25 minutes of the movie approaching the edge of your seat.
The end is hurried, I feel - there's no real mass recognition by all of the passengers on the flight that, "Hey! Crazy Lady wasn't... crazy...", as I felt there should have been. Also, I thought it rather crass of the writers/directors/actors to accept having your standard "Let's put some people from the Middle East on the flight and feed into the audience's stereotypes a little bit" situation in the film.
So there ya go - that was Flightplan, and I'd give it... 2.5 stars out of 5. Not quite enough to merit saying, "Hey! I liked it! I really liked it!" and not enough to say "Ugh. Avoid it like the avian flu."
Jodie Foster (Kyle Pratt) does a good job with showing derangement, which is a good thing. Otherwise, this would have been a difficult movie to sit through. She shows off her linguistic versatility once more (see my first post), speaking German at the very beginning of the movie. And her portrait of the mother/engineer-worried-sick-over-her-child is well played. I sure wouldn't want to be on a plane with someone like her.
The captain is played by Sean Bean, just the right mix of "DAMN, why do I always get the crazies?" and "Right, down to business. Follow procedure. I mean it. Otherwise you never fly with me again."
And, ah yes, the air marshal (Clayton) is played by Peter Sarsgaard. I can't really say anything about his character, for fear of spoiling the entire movie for you.
The flight attendants are, mercifully, unlike any flight attendant I've ever encountered. They form a pack of snarling, unbelieving hyenas, and are generally much like any Alpha Clique of females in your typical American high school.
So, let's get back to the plot. It gets pretty long and drawn out, especially when Kyle insists on the full search of the ENTIRE aircraft. Over. And over. And over. Then interrogates flight attendant after flight attendant, gets in the captain's face, and then goes after the flight attendants again. The fellow passengers are generally as annoying a mix as you generally get in economy class on an overseas flight, right down to the fighting pre-adolescent siblings. The Fat Mustachioed Man is pretty annoying, put there to help distract you and start the requisite rumble in any action movie that occurs in a VERY close space. And The Psychiatrist is so incredibly patronizing and, well, psychiatrist-y that you'll want to root for Kyle to turn around and say something like, "Your analysis has been so incredibly right-on.... *SMACK* (as Kyle smacks The Psychiatrist into a week from tomorrow)".
Just when you start checking your watch and thinking to yourself, "Okay, Captain, will you PLEASE take the plane down and make the crazy lady go away?", hang on. They're not done with you yet. There's a pretty ingenious plot twist that will leave you somewhat agog. Plan on spending the last 25 minutes of the movie approaching the edge of your seat.
The end is hurried, I feel - there's no real mass recognition by all of the passengers on the flight that, "Hey! Crazy Lady wasn't... crazy...", as I felt there should have been. Also, I thought it rather crass of the writers/directors/actors to accept having your standard "Let's put some people from the Middle East on the flight and feed into the audience's stereotypes a little bit" situation in the film.
So there ya go - that was Flightplan, and I'd give it... 2.5 stars out of 5. Not quite enough to merit saying, "Hey! I liked it! I really liked it!" and not enough to say "Ugh. Avoid it like the avian flu."
posted by Linz at 6:52 PM
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