Flightplan (Widescreen)

 

 

Create your own review

I was surprised by some of the less than stellar reviews this film received, mainly because Jodie Foster, the consummate actress, just does not make bad movies - especially at this stage in her illustrious career. A few comparisons to The Forgotten did manage to lower my expectations a bit going in, but Flightplan really impressed me. Yes, you have to stretch credibility a little bit when you watch it, but that's almost to be expected since we are talking about a movie and not a documentary or reenactment of actual events. It's not easy to come up with a decent ending for a movie like this (and, inevitably, some viewers will think it should have taken a different path at the end), but I think the filmmakers hit a stand-up triple if not a home run in the case of Flightplan.

Jodie Foster plays Kyle Pratt, a grieving widow flying home from Germany with her daughter and the body of her husband (who died when he fell off the roof of their building). It's a huge, brand new airplane, one which Pratt actually helped design, and she sets out to search every inch of it after she wakes up, some three hours into the flight, to find her six-years-old daughter missing. Like any mother, she does a quick search of the surrounding area before quickly slipping into panic mode, soliciting the help of the crew and, ultimately, the captain. A search is organized by the crew, but no one finds any sign of little Julia (Marlene Lawston). To make matters worse, no one on board the plane even remembers seeing the little girl, and everyone on the passenger list is accounted for. By now the air marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) is heavily involved, as Pratt has begun making quite a disturbance. She just wants to find her child, but no one believes the girl was ever on the plane. Can the drama of such a situation play out effectively for over an hour? You bet it can, especially if Jodie Foster is the one pulling at your heartstrings.

I think this film is put together extremely well. A gloomy, somewhat discordant beginning lays the groundwork for what is to come, introducing a level of ambiguity that makes it more difficult to figure out where this movie is ultimately taking you. The acting is really top-notch overall (with the exception of Sarsgaard, who doesn't seem to be putting all that much effort into it). I thought Sean Bean was particularly impressive as the captain. Jodie Foster, of course, is superb, and the viewer can't help but develop a really strong relationship with her; a less talented actress might have had trouble sustaining the tension over the course of the entire film, but Jodie keeps ratcheting up the old suspense meter with every action she takes in her desperate search - and she climbs all over that plane, showing me places I never even knew existed. The film's moment of truth comes toward the end, when the whole nature of the story suddenly takes a dramatic turn. I think it comes through it with flying colors, giving us a highly satisfying ending - which is quite a feat for a film of this nature.

Even if you were to hate the whole story, Flightplan is still worth watching for Jodie Foster alone. With all of the movie stars filling up Hollywood these days, it's a rare treat to watch a true actress at work. Nobody does it better than Jodie Foster.

"Flightplan" is a movie that wants to start playing with your mind before you ever see the movie. After all, the hook for the movie is certainly good enough to stand on its own. A woman and her daughter are on an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean, and the daughter disappears. How can a child disappear on an airplane? Well, you the idea should be that you go to see the movie and you find out the answer. After all, we went to go see "Titanic" to see how Kate Winslet's character was going to survive when we see her riding the stern of the ship in to the Atlantic Ocean in the trailer. But the trailer for "Flightplan" plays out a lot more of the line, because the people on the airplane are all telling the mother that nobody saw her with a child, there is no record on the manifest, and basically telling the audience that there was never a child.

So we start watching "Flightplan" knowing about the hook and the line, and waiting to find out what the sinker is for this 2005 film. Consequently, everything that happens from the first moment of the film is a clue for us to try and unravel. The mother, Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is in the bedroom of her daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston), in their Berlin home and the kids seems real enough. But then we see Kyle talking with her husband: one minute he is there, the next minute he is not. Then he is in a coffin being loaded on an airplane that is the biggest one you have ever seen and which is taking mother and daughter to the United States.

The script by first time screenwriter Peter A. Dowling and punched up by Billy Ray ("Shattered Glass"), takes full advantage of every nook and cranny in that giant airplane. The ace in the hole that the increasingly distraught Kyle has in her favor is that she works for the company that built the big airplane so that she can list in detail all of the places where a six-year-old girl could disappear. More importantly, beyond the idea of a mother getting upset over the sudden disappearance of her child, there is something quite unsettling about seeing Jodie Foster play a character who has gone over the edge. I was a bit uneasy watching her character wilt before the investigating committee at the end of "Contract," and when she starts coming apart at the seems here it is disquieting because Foster's strength is in playing characters who push back when they get pushed. But hang in there. It just takes a while for Kyle to start pushing back.

In the meanwhile, the film does an effective job of stripping her of her inherent sympathy to the point that the crew and passengers become convinced Kyle is just a crazy woman. It is the realization of how their thinking that will keep her from finding her daughter, who may or may not be there, that brings Kyle back from the edge as she deals with Carson (Peter Sarsgaard), the sky marshal, Captain Rich (Sean Bean), the pilot, and flight attendants Stephanie (Kate Beahan), Fiona (Erika Christensen), and Claudia (Jane Kolesarova).

"Flightplan" works pretty well the first time, which is to say that I did not figure it out. However, when it is over you should be able to figure out how tenuous a house of cards has been created for director Robert Schwentke's film. Letting the audience be ahead of the game at the start of the film is actually the key way this movie keeps audiences from figuring it out. The explanation makes sense and all of the pieces fit, but in retrospect it seems a ludicrous path for a story to take. Fortunately, Foster's performance helps keep this one longer in the air that most actresses could have managed. The rest of the cast certainly helps, but Foster does the heavy lifting on this one.

I know that many people might criticize this film for being overblown or ludicrous but it is a Hollywood picture after all.

Movies are not meant to be realistic at all times. Heaven knows we have enough of that on television with stupid reality series.

Movies are meant to entertain us for an hour and a half or two hours. This one certainly entertains.

With Flightplan, like many big budget Hollywood films we are taken on a fast and furious ride from the moment the plane takes off to the last minutes it is on the ground.

Jodie Foster is delivers a solid performance and gives the film the credibility it needs to keep this film in the air so to speak.

This was a romp. Good fun and meant to be taken in that context.

Worth 3 popcorn bags!

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 6 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

3.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing
Dealing with the tragic death of her husband, an aeronautic engineer (Jodie Foster) boards a flight from Berlin to New York with his body and their 6-year-old daughter. Read more

Published on Dec 12 2008 by Greg Curtis

4.0 out of 5 stars very harrowing,but
i don't think it's realistic.the basic story is that a woman is on a
flight with her young daughter. Read more

Published on Feb 1 2008 by falcon

2.0 out of 5 stars thou shalt suspend they disbelief
Hollywood often acts as if suspension of disbelief (aided by big budget production values and big name actors) can overcome all critical thought in even moderately intelligent... Read more

Published on Feb 7 2006 by James Field

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 6 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!