Flightplan
By: Mark Runyon | Category: On DVD | 10/25/05 | 10:36 PM
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Grade: B- | Genre: Suspense
Summary: Flightplan is a satisfying adventure. Its script does have its fair share of problems, but Foster's energized performance moves it along swiftly enough so you don't ponder too long on the pesky details.
Suspense at 36,000 feet seems to be all the rage in the multiplex these days. A couple months ago we welcomed Wes Craven's swan song Red Eye, and this time we have Jodie Foster working herself into a tizzy over her lost daughter in the tension filled Flightplan. Maybe it's the whole "terrorist taking over airplanes" thing that is inciting all this suspense, packed into cramped quarters. These things seem to come in waves like the dueling movies about the running legend Prefontaine or Scorsese meets Brad Pitt's Dalai Lama. It makes you wonder if the Hollywood studios actually talk to one another when planning projects or maybe that's the problem. I can hear the clear headed logic now, "well if Paramount's going to have a film about an obscure 70's running legend, we've got to have one too." Luckily, there's enough distinction to Flightplan to set it apart from Red Eye. So grab your salted nuts and fluff challenged pillow as we prepare for takeoff. |
Flightplan doesn't waste anytime jump-starting the story. In the opening frame, we witness Kyle Pratt (Foster) identifying her late husband's body at the morgue in Berlin. He died under somewhat mysterious circumstances, throwing himself off a building. Kyle and her daughter Julia (Lawston) are taking his body back to the New York where she will presumably stay with her parents after the funeral. You wonder exactly how much the 6-year-old Julia understands about her father's death. She innocently asks on the plane if daddy will be joining them in New York. They are the first to board and they largely keep to themselves, snuggled into the tail end of this monstrous beast. It is a 500-seat aircraft that looks like a cruise ship with wings. As most people do on transatlantic flights, Kyle settles in for a peaceful sleep. That peacefulness dissolves when she wakes up three hours later to find little Julia missing. At first, it appears that she's just wandered off, as she's been prone to do. Kyle starts sweeping the aisles, checking the bathrooms and asking everyone in reach if they've seen her -- nothing. No one has seen her nor do they ever remember seeing her. Sadly, no one seems to care either, too absorbed in their own existence. She calls on the captain to put the plane in lockdown mode so they can search every nook and cranny of the ship. She just happens to be one of the aircraft's chief engineers so she knows the layout like the back of her hand. Surprisingly, confining five hundred people to their seats on a transatlantic flight doesn't make for a cabin full of jolly ranchers for some reason. Go figure.
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This is the absolute last time I fly
Midget Air. |
| Flightplan |
| Starring: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Sean Bean and Haley Ramm |
| Director: Robert Schwentke |
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| View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
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Certain problems start cropping up in Kyle's story that lead all involved to question her mental stability. The passenger manifest doesn't show that her daughter ever boarded the plane, and the passenger head count confirms this. None of the flight attendants or the passengers saw her board the plane. As Kyle presses harder and harder for them to search deeper into the belly of the aircraft, the captain (Bean) and air marshal (Sarsgaard) start to grow weary of her agitation and the inevitable effect it's having on the remaining passengers. Then they find out from the world on the ground that the morgue reported that her daughter died earlier in the week in the same tragedy as her husband. Is this just a case of a woman who has lost her mind, or did someone on the flight kidnap Julia in an elaborate rouse for some unstated purpose?
This picture flies along on its tense plot. These building blocks of revelation are really compelling in Hitchcock fashion. It packs in a series of plot twists that keep you engaged with her plight. Unfortunately, there is one huge flaw to the plot that I can't mention since that would take the sting out of the whole build-up. There are other small threads that look a little shabby, but only minimally detract from the story. This is an enjoyable thriller based on Jodie Foster's work. As she searches for her daughter, she goes from frantic to downright schizo. She's ready to tear every metal shingle off that plane till she finds her. Given she just lost her husband, the thought of losing the last of her family just completely unhinges her. She always does a great job playing the grown up tomboy that will disarm you with the sexy smile just before she bashes your head in with the fire extinguisher. While I loved her as the understated Elodie in the French romance A Very Long Engagement, I think Foster is most in her element when she gets to kick ass. Sarsgaard is largely wasted here as the relatively flat air marshal. Just like the bayou thriller Skeleton Key, he seems to be drifting away from his indie roots to cash in while his stock is hot on roles that anyone could fill. Steal a page from Philip Seymour Hoffman's playbook and stick with those curious indie roles. Nothing wrong with going slumming in big budget Hollywood features every now and again, just make sure the role doesn't look like a massive eyesore on your distinguished resume.
Flightplan is a satisfying adventure. Its script does have its fair share of problems, but Foster's energized performance moves it along swiftly enough so you don't ponder too long on the pesky details. If you're looking for deep probing cinematic brilliance, opt for some of the great indie fare hiding in theatres: Capote or Good Night and Good Luck. If you just want to put your brain on autopilot for the evening, Flightplan has enough stylish twists and turns to make you feel like you aren't suffering through an in-flight movie.
Originally Posted: October 25, 2005
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