Review: Flight

Not that flight—the other one

By Morris Dean

The trailer for Flight suggests that this 2012 movie directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Denzel Washington as a commercial airline pilot might be an action movie. Indeed, what happens during the movie's single airplane flight unfolds as a harrowing action sequence. Pilot Whip Whitaker must execute the only maneuver apparently possible to prevent the plane from diving into Atlanta and killing everyone aboard—a maneuver that none of the ten other pilots tested afterwards by investigators of the National Transportation Safety Board is able to execute in simulation. The investigators are prepared to class Whitaker's feat as miraculous.
    The only thing is, Whitaker was drunk and had had very little sleep the night before—he was rather busy drinking, snuffing cocaine, and having sex with a stewardess.
    The action of Flight that gives the movie's title its deeper, more significant meaning is Whitaker's persistent denial that he has a drinking problem. The NTSB's investigation into the causes of the crash puts fierce pressure on Whitaker to either confront or attempt to cover up his drinking problem, of which everyone but Whitaker himself seems to be aware.
    Will Whitaker ever stand up and incant the well-known AA words, "I am an alcoholic"? The emotional and interpersonal action that leads up to the answer is action movie indeed. Outstanding, Must-See film.

    By the way, John Goodman easily steals his two scenes in Flight as Whitaker's friend and drug supplier. The last time we saw Goodman, he played Clint Eastwood's friend in Trouble with the Curve, another movie in which the title's operative word has a deeper significance than the obvious one. Trouble with the Curve was reviewed on January 20.
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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