FlightPlan Movie Review

I'm gonna get this out of the way ahead of time, because we all know I'm thinking it. This movie would be a lot better if it involved snakes on the plane in any way, shape or form. Snakes on a plane. There's a brilliant movie. Alas, I have to wait a whole year before I get to see that story told. Instead, I have to drag myself to a different kind of movie that takes place on an airplane. One that feels a little familiar. Wasn't there just another movie that came out about peril on an airplane sans snakes? I'm pretty sure it starred my future wife Rachel McAdams.

Flightplan is the return of Jodie Foster, which is not to be discounted. It's great to see Jodie Foster back in films again, even if the film is a Panic Room retread that's none too deserving of her talents.

Foster plays Kyle Pratt, an engineer in Berlin who's husband has recently passed away. She's an emotional wreck, but she keeps a cool composure for the sake of her 6 year old daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston). Kyle is taking Julia back to the states, on the new Airbus A380, a double decker jumbo jet that Kyle had a hand in designing. On the plane, Julia and Kyle go to sleep. Kyle wakes up a few hours later, and her Julia is missing. She begins to search the plane, and panics a bit more as her search yields nothing. Kyle even bangs on the door of the pilot, which we all know in this age of heightened security precautions, is not the smartest of moves. The air marshall on the flight, Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard), subdues Kyle. she begs and pleads with Carson and the Captain (Sean Bean) to search the plane, they reluctantly oblige, much to the growing unease of the other 400 passengers on the enormous plane. Then things get a little more unnerving for Kyle, as her sanity is pushed to the limit. Is there a nefarious plot afoot?

Of course there is. That's what these types of movies are about. But this movie isn't really that good. It's not horrible or painful, like some other movies I've been privy to this year. And it's not so bad it's fun as hell to watch like some others. It just kind of sits there, and doesn't do anything we haven't seen before. And when it was done before, it was done much better.

If there's anything redeemable in the film, it's Foster. Se's really good, and brings you into it. Her actions and reactions to the events unfolding around her are totally believable and within her character. (Except for one thing I'll briefly mention towards the ending). Foster does a great job with what little there is to work with, and as the movie devolves into typical boilerplate at 30,000 feet, there's still that part of you that wants Jodie to discover the truth. If you're forced to see this movie, you can take solace knowing that at least Foster brought her A-game to the table for our sake.

The rest of the cast isn't bad, but they certainly looked as bored as I was. Peter Sarsgaard, dude, you're a good actor. I've seen you be awesome in movies like Shattered Glass, and Garden State (despite my intense, unmotivated loathing of that film for personal reasons too long to get into). I know you can be good, so I'm not faulting you for this or for Skeleton Key last month. But Peter, do you have to look so bored with the material? Can't you just say no to these movies? Granted, Jodie doesn't work too often, so this was a good opportunity to work with her, but you guys are capable of much more. I wish you better, Peter, because I know you're capable of it.

And Sean Bean. Even when he's a good guy, like Boromir, you still can't trust him. In this, I think, he was cast simply because he was Sean Bean, and he could or couldn't be involved with the dubious plot afoot, but you still wouldn't want to trust him regardless. Either way, he does an accurate job as the pilot. By that, I mean he wears a captain's uniform. Erica Christensen plays a flight attendant, but she doesn't have much to do but look confused. And Kate Beahan, an actress I know nothing about, plays another flight attendant, and she is about as interesting as Erica.

The direction wasn't anything to sing home about, and the script goes from being fairly intelligent and going downhill from there until it becomes just another thriller. Things are set up to draw suspicion on others, but nothing pays off. It could almost be deemed vaguely racist at points, but the movie's too boring to even counter that. (I could get into the reasons why, but that would eliminate "suspense" for those of you that actually still want to check this movie out).The special effects I didn't think we're all that great, and the music was average. What I'm getting at is that aside from Foster, nothing in this movie is really worth noting. You might have been able to deduce that already.

So to go onto something about the film that really stuck in my craw, I'm going to enter minor inconsequential spoiler territory. So prepare yourself for something that doesn't really spoil anything at all, especially because it's in the preview, but some might still be.. you know what who cares? There's an explosion. An explosion on a plane? Yes it's true. I'm not going to ruin the hows or whys, but the very fact that there's an explosion in the movie just strengthens the argument that any movie that doesn't know how to end, should throw in an explosion for good measure. Preferably with a lot of "tense" music building up to the climax, of which said explosion is release. It's unnecessary, but then again, there's a lot about this movie that feels that way.

You might be able to tell that I don't recommend the movie. It's not that I hate the film and everyone involved with it. I'm happy that Jodie Foster is working again. I just wish she'd make something more deserving of her talent. That doesn't mean she needs to step onto a plane that happens to contain snakes, it just means she should steer clear of more films like this.