I have certain actors, writers, and directors whose movies I follow.
Denzel Washington is one of those actors that I follow from movie to movie.
I'm pretty sure I could watch the guy paint a wall, and be touched and entertained by it.
Okay, maybe not, but you get my point.
I'm a little behind on this one, but my wife and I just finished watching Flight. Man, it was a good one. I'm not sure where it falls on my list of favorites for 2012 - maybe I should do a blog on that - but it met my expectations. Not sure if it exceeded them. I'm still letting it marinate in my mind. Whether or not it did may be a blog for another time. I just know I enjoyed the film.
Synopsis
An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.
What I Liked
I did something I normally don't do while watching movies. I took notes. Not sure if that will make a difference in the way I write my reviews, but here's a few thoughts I noted.
The technical jargon in the first 15-20 minutes of the movie helped me as a viewer to get into what was about to take place. We all know that there's going to be a crash. The trailer lets you know that's going to happen. But listening to Denzel and bark orders, and communicate with the flight tower, put me on the edge of my seat. It's probably the first movie since Argo to have me so on edge that I was about to fall off the couch. There's an enormity to this situation and people are going to die if Whip doesn't save this flight. I read that Denzel took flight lessons to prepare for this role. It was evident. It seemed I could peak into the cock pit of any flight I was on and see Denzel in the captain's chair.
Flight is possibly Denzel Washington's best performance since Man On Fire.
Yeah. I just looked over his IMDB. This is his best role since Fire.
As Whip Whitaker Denzel is all over the map and wears a mask of so many different emotions. He commands the screen. In the captain's chair Whip is confident and at ease, but after the crash he's uncomfortable and awkward. Whip is an addict struggling to get his life together, and overcome his addiction, but fails time and time and time again. Denzel does a fantastic job portraying an addict. He's subtle and frustrating. You want to reach through the screen and slap the bottle from his sand. You want to see him overcome and conquer the alcohol and the drugs, but Whip isn't strong enough to do it.
I can't think of another actor who could embody this character and make this movie work.
There's another actor that steals every scene he's in. John Goodman gets outside his box in Flight, and gives us a performance that is one of his very best. There's a specific scene in particular. It's towards the end of the movie, and Whip has gone on a drinking binge. He needs a pick me up and there's one person who can help him out. This person is Harling. The hotel scene kept me laughing. I'm pretty sure there were a few times that I was leaning over the couch in laughter. It was more the absurdity of the situation than anything. You feel sorry for Whip. The guy is so weak. Props to John Goodman for bringing the laughs. He reminded me of Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski. I'd like to see a crossover film where The Dude's and Harling's paths cross. That'd be a riot.
There was another scene in the beginning of the movie. Whip is in the hospital and he meets Kelly Reilly's - someone else who left it all on screen - character for the first time. They share a smoke in the stairwell of the hospital and come across one outrageous character. The dialogue in this scene is the best of the whole movie. Even Denzel can't outshine James Badge Dale in this scene. What else has this guy been in? Nothing really. Not that I can tell from his IMDB. He's gonna need to be in more movies if he's as good as he was in this scene.
(Ah, he was in 24 and played Chase Edmunds. Knew I knew him from something.)
There were a few things I didn't like about Flight. Lets talk about that.
What I Didn't Like
At the beginning of the movie Nicole is being introduced and she's having an argument with her land lord, Ken. Here you've got a girl from the UK and a guy from New Jersey trying their best to pull off a southern accent, and it was so exaggerated it took me out of the movie. I was born and raised in Georgia, and spent my whole life around southern accents, and I thought this movie was going to slaughter the way I talk. Thankfully they didn't ruin the accent, and Kelly Reilly settled into the southern way of speaking as the movie went on, and I forgot that she was British. Brian Geraghty never got it though. For the short time he was on screen anyway. Boy, he was bad.
There was also a scene in the movie where Whip's co-pilot get insanely religious. For me this was meh. I didn't get the point of it. I understand how a tragic even can cause a person to have a "Damascus Road" experience, but as a viewer I felt like they were mocking Christianity. Maybe that wasn't the director's, or the writer's, intention but that's how it came off. Part of the problem was poor delivery on the part of Conor O'Neil and the actress who played his wife. Do better next time, guys.
The ending falls short of the high bar set by the first act.
Was it satisfactory? Yes.
Was I happy? Yes.
I just didn't feel like there was a full resolution here. Mainly because I didn't believe in the actions taken by Whip. I could never see someone in those same shoes do what he did. If you want to know what he does you'll have to watch the movie for yourself.
Should You See Flight?
Definitely. It's nice to see Robert Zemeckis directing a live-action flick. I loved The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol - two of my favorite Christmas movies - but there's nothing like human actors. And here you've got some people who are delivering some of the best performances of their careers. This goes somewhere on my list of favorite movies for 2012. I'm just not sure where yet.
Get this movie, folks. You won't be sorry.
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