Flightplan (Touchstone Pictures, 2005)

In Flightplan,a taut thriller directed by Robert Schwentke, Jodie Foster plays Kyle Pratt, a mom who has just lost her husband and together with her six year old daughter Julia, is flying the body from Berlin back to New York aboard a jumbo jet. Mom and daughter stretch out for a snooze just after takeoff and when Kyle wakes up several hours later, Julia is missing. After a search of the plane, she is told that there is no record of her daughter ever being on the flight, offering the dual scenarios that either a kidnapping has taken place or that Kyle is just a delusional mom, overcome with grief due to the death of her husband.

Conveniently, Kyle is a jet propulsion engineer, familiar with every hatch, nook, and cranny of this airliner. Evidence such as the child's blanket, stuffed toy, and her heart tracing in the fog of the jet's window suggest that the delusional mom theory has been engineered by the clever kidnappers, and you don't have to be Roger Ebert to figure out early on that air marshal Rich, played with oily effectiveness by Peter Sarsgaard is somehow involved.

It's no giveaway of the ending to say that the woman (and child) in peril sequence that the plot degenerates to, is one that we've seen over and over and over again in the movies. The reason that this is disappointing is that otherwise the movie is really well done. The direction, the cinematography, the casting, and the acting is all first rate, especially the portrayal by Jodie Foster of the frantic yet resourceful mom.

Greta Scacchi appears as a therapist who tries to help in mid-flight; Scacchi's British accent is instantly identifiable, even if they have her looking more like the shrink from The Sopranos. That an actress of Scacchi's accomplishment winds up playing a bit part in an action thriller like this is kind of disheartening, but she does add a little class to anything that she's in.

The tension never lets up as the movie unspools which allows me to give this a conditional recommendation: if you're someone who has the capacity to suspend disbelief and enjoy a well made action thriller, you could do a lot worse than spending ninety-eight minutes with Flightplan. Anyone else will find this plot to be preposterous from beginning to end and should likely take another flight.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering the Main Point, 1964 - 1981

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #5 Begining in 1964, The Main Point in Bryn Mawr provided the Philadelphia area with one of its most enjoyable venues for live music. Although it started as a folk based coffeehouse, all styles of music were presented over the years. Financial problems continually plagued the Main Point, and in spite of frequent benefit shows by artists who loved the place as much as the audience, the club finally closed in 1981. The following brief history is contained in an obituary of Jeanette O. Campbell, one of the founders and owners of the Main Point who died on October 22, 2006, written by Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer Sally A. Downey as reprinted on the Save Ardmore Coalition website. Jeanette Orndoff Campbell, 89, former owner of the Main Point, a music hall in Bryn Mawr where young talents including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor were introduced to local audiences, died of complications from hip surgery Oct. 22 at Stap
Read more

Cream and Blind Faith at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, 1968 & 1969

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #3 (L-R) Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, & Eric Clapton I could not have foreseen it at the time, but looking back on a concert going history now entering it's fifth decade, my first three concerts were absolutely formative in the development of the music obsession that has driven life as we know it from that point forward. Attending a rock concert pre drivers license was no small feat, that I even got to these shows is the first indication that I knew I was onto something even if I couldn't quite explain it. I've already detailed my first concert (The Beatles at JFK Stadium) in my MMMM#1 . My second and third concerts took place at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, they were less than a year apart, and due to the fact that concerts never end at the time predicted, these concert experiences both ended with a very angry driver stuck waiting in the car outside the venue until the last encore had finished. I shot both concerts with the same starter
Read more

And We Danced - Filming the Hooters Video, 7/27/85

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #4 "And We Danced" (picture sleeve above) was released in 1985 as the second single from the album, Nervous Night , the Hooters' major label debut for Columbia Records. Here's the video. The call went out to the Hooters' mailing list the last week of July 1985 that an audience with cars would be needed on the coming Saturday for a video shoot. Participants would report to the Exton Drive-In by late morning and be prepared to stay all day until after dark. This stage set, early in the day, was a warm-up for the crowd and probably a dry run for the production team for the night-time performance to be filmed later. The banner backdrop does not appear in the video. Some of the antique and custom cars that were on hand for the shoot. The production crew prepares the ticket booth for its shot. This is the film crew shooting the acoustic intro part of the song. The acoustic intro was shot twice, first with t
Read more