Thursday, February 7, 2013

Movie Review: Flight

Last night I watched Flight.  The movie stars Denzel Washington as an airline pilot who miraculously (and skillfully) lands a crippled aircraft saving most everyone on board.  The plane was in a dive that would have killed everyone but he managed to crash land it with only six out of 102 people on board killed.  However, this starts a chain of events that lead to his life falling apart.

I thought this was going to be a conspiracy thriller, the big evil corporation or the big evil government intelligence service set him up somehow and it would devolve into car chases and shoot-outs.  But no.  This movie is a character study of a man whose life is crumbling around him.  I don't want to give too much away but Washington gives an amazing performance and the entire film is just shot with simplistic beauty.  I thought the ending was a little unbelievable but up until then it was a first rate character study and as a writer I appreciated that.

Flight is rated "R" for "drug and alcohol abuse, language, sexuality/nudity, and an intense action sequence" so it's not for kids.  But adults should enjoy it.

There is one glaring error aviation buffs/pilots will catch.  I'll leave that up to the student to find.

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