Flight

After years of making motion capture animated films, Robert Zemeckis returns to making live action films with no animation.
Robert Zemeckis is one of my favourite directors. He directed one of my all time favourite films, 'Death Becomes Her'. So I hold him in very high regard. I do feel that his recent foray into motion capture was not the success that he hoped for. I did like these films but they were not as great as some of his previous films. Alcoholics are another popular type of character that writers like to write about. Of all forms of addiction this one is one that most writers like to play with. The plots are usually the same with a person having trouble in their lives and then going through a major upheaval before either finding redemption or dying. The one thing that makes this film all the more interesting is that it begins with one of the most spectacular plane crashes ever seen on film. Robert Zemeckis loves to play with special effects and he really puts a lot of time and effort into making this plane crash incredibly intense and thrilling. This then makes the rest of the film a lot more interesting than usual too. The conflict of Whip saving a plane load of people from a massive crash while being drunk is a very clever ploy. While he saves most of the passengers there were 6 that died, so that means he can be charged with manslaughter. Whip also begins a relationship with a fellow addict so that adds a nice little wrinkle to proceedings.
I am not that big a fan of Denzel Washington. But I thought his performance here was excellent. He is able to make Whip feel more than just a worthless drunk. You really come to care about him and see that he is successful in getting over his addiction. Equally as good is Kelly Reilly. I think she gives a brilliant performance but attention for it has been over shadowed by Denzel. She is just a deserving of awards as Denzel but his star power has meant she has been forgotten. Don Cheedle and Bruce Greenwood are good in their minor roles but they have nothing to work with as their characters are more functionary than emotionally involved with Whip. John Goodman on the other hand has a very grand role and steals every scene he is in.
While it may seem on the surface that this film goes all out within the first half hour without much happening after that, it is still a very good film. Worth seeing for the plane crash and Denzel's performance.