Regardless of what you might think you know or expect about the first live-action Robert Zemeckis film since 2000's Cast Away, what you actually see will surprise you, because Flight isn't just one type of film. Above all things, the film is a hardcore, rough-around-the-edges drama that begins with a horrific but spectacular plane crash in which pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) is able to put his disintegrating plane down in an empty field with minimal loss of life. He is hailed as a hero by the media almost immediately, but as the facts in the accident start to come out, it becomes clear the Whip was not in complete control of his faculties (or was he?) when he boarded the aircraft that fateful morning.
While the trailers for FLIGHT make it look like some kind of cross between a mystery, thriller, courtroom drama about whether or not Whip was drunk while flying the plane, you'll know from the first scene that he absolutely was drunk, with a little cocaine thrown in for good measure. He'd also spent most of the night before partying and having sex with one of the flight attendants (Nadine Velazquez). So, you see: there's no mystery here at all.
What FLIGHT actually is is something much more complex, dark and layered. It's a brilliant character study of a man who has spent most of his adult life being a selfish prick and a raging alcoholic. He sacrificed his marriage and his relationship with his son just so he could drink freely and not take shit for it. I honestly don't remember the last time Washington inhabited a character so ferociously to his core, to the point where it feels like an honor just to watch him play this toxic human wasteland.
What the film does so perfectly is spend much of its two-and-a-half hours is ripping away the layers of armor Whip has bolted to his flesh. We've seen movies about drunks for decades, and they all have their reasons, but writer John Gatins does marvelous work at getting into the dark soul of this man to find the raging pain that he's attempting the drown every chance he gets.
But on a larger scale, FLIGHT is also about the value of the truth. Even once suspicions arise that Whip was intoxicated (probably just enough to keep him flying at his peak), there are those on both sides of the investigative fence who are willing to bury that information to keep up the impression that the world has another much-needed hero in its midst. The crackling Don Cheadle plays Chicago lawyer (because we know lawyers from Chicago have that extra layer of slick) Hugh Lang, whose expertise is never losing court cases and getting crucial evidence tossed out. He's up against lead National Transportation Safety Board attorney Ellen Block (Melissa Leo), doing a bit of manipulating herself, and she's quite good at it. But the hearings about the flight are the least interesting things about this movie.
A sizable portion of FLIGHT isn't about Washington at all, or at least not just about him. We also get to know a woman named Nicole (Kelly Reilly, best known in America as Dr. Watson's wife in the SHERLOCK HOLMES movies), an addict and sometimes prostitute who meets Whip in the hospital right after the crash; she's in for a drug overdose. But for some reason, after sharing a cigarette in a hospital stairwell, the two cling to each other for some kind of twisted salvation. And for a time, it actually works. He dumps all of his booze in the sink, and she stops getting high, and they immediately move in together at his family farm away from the reporters waiting outside his home.
Their relationship is the emotional core of the film, and when she decides to leave, it destroys him and brings to task all of the terrible things he's done in his life (and will likely do again). The sequences with Whip falling off the wagon hard are ugly, tense and draining to watch, but watch them you will because it's impossible not to.
Also along for the ride are Bruce Greenwood as a liaison from the pilots union and old friend, who helps Whip get his story straight and his act together as best he can; Tamara Tune, terrific as one of the other flight attendants on that fateful crash who knows what she saw but is so grateful for living that she may not say a word to the investigators; and John Goodman, who is a joy to see as Whip's jovial drug dealer, but we also know that when he's around, Whip's sobriety will suffer. Goodman's only in a couple of scenes, but he makes a substantial impact. One of the more interesting characters is Brian Geraghty as Whip's co-pilot Ken Evans, a deeply religious man who is severely injured in the crash and is truly torn by what to say to the investigators as well. He's actually angry that he even has to consider lying because he's afraid he'll go to hell for doing so.
What especially shocking about FLIGHT is that it comes from Zemeckis, a fine filmmaker, but one who has specialized in movies aimed at all audiences (the BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy, FORREST GUMP, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT) that have become staples in pop culture. His latest work is not only a hard, R-rated (for nudity, drug use, language, a bit of violence... you name it), but it's also a mature, thoughtful piece that pulls no punches in its depiction of substance abuse and makes very few excuses for a whole lot of bad behavior.
With some of the best acting you'll see all year, FLIGHT is the type of absorbing work that will take you in its grip, never let you go, and might even shake you around a bit. This one sticks with you long after the credits stop rolling, and hopefully opens up entire new avenues for a director I thought I had pegged years ago.
