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"Flightplan" has rough landing |
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Written by JORDAN GREENBERG
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Friday, 23 September 2005 |
“Flightplan” is a midair mystery piloted by an impressive cast, but even Charles Lindbergh couldn’t save a plane of such poor design.
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"Flightplan"
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 Entertainment
Art
Directed by Robert Schwentke
Written by Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray
Starring Jodie Foster, Sean Bean, Peter Sarsgaard, and Erika Christensen
Rated PG-13 for violence and some intense plot material.
Released September 23, 2005
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Jodie Foster plays Kyle Pratt, the recently widowed mother of daughter Julia, who is leaving Germany to bury the remains of her husband in America. While trying to separate her dreams from reality and danger from safety, the family of two makes their way to the airport. With paranoia coloring her vision, Pratt navigates the terminal to board a state-of-the-art jumbo plane she helped to design, in what seems to be the end of her journey. We soon find that it is only the beginning as Pratt’s paranoid fantasies turn true and her daughter goes missing mid-flight. This is the premise that brought us into the theater, but something much less articulate awaits us inside. German director Robert Schwentke was blessed with a proven and talented cast in Jodie Foster, Sean Bean, and Peter Sarsgaard on this film. With a new mystery in every scene, such a group of on-the-edge actors never tips Schwentke’s hand and allows him to just let the cameras roll. Ultimately convincing as a grieving wife and loving mother, Jodie Foster plays a woman we can’t help but sympathize with. Both Sarsgaard and Bean’s characters are driven along by Pratt’s force of will, helping this film to plug in all plot holes and tie off all its loose strings, something no other modern thriller has even attempted. Although their answers aren’t always justified, screenwriters Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray were nonetheless ambitious in this aspect. It is in the final half-hour that “Flightplan” fails to deliver. Even through its tedious opening and the often frustrating body of this film, “Flightplan” has all the makings of a mysterious and unique psychological thriller, but in the end it allows itself to be something much simpler. The promise of a water-cooler solution, a startling revelation, is never delivered upon and this action packed finale becomes a disappointment as brains and not brawn are what brought us into the theater in the first place. Some have heralded this as Jodie Foster’s return to Hollywood, but a performance doesn’t make a movie and this one took the easy road home. So, did “Flightplan” crash and burn? No, but there was definitely a problem with the landing gear. I think we can expect better from both Foster and Sarsgaard in the future. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
