Flightplan (2005)

To me, this movie is perfection.

The Worst Film Ever

Strong and Moving!

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I didn't see the whole movie. My husband went outside, and left the TV on. I was walking by, and happened to glance up, and saw the camera on a window of a house. Kinda got me interested, since it looked just like a cross, and well most windows have got the usual up and across kind of shapes in their windows. Now, I haven't seen the whole movie, so I don't know who's house it was. So as I will still looking at the window, the camera was slowly going from left to right. Now that first window I saw, was a set of windows. Each had crosses. Now as the camera moved, there came up another set of windows, with the crosses again. But, the last window came up. If anyone watched this movie before, then this would be obvious, because I'm assuming it was a horror movie, but the last window was not a set, it was only one, and there, right in front of my eyes...was an upside down cross in the last window. So, I'm wondering if this was intentional, did it have some meaning to the movie, or did I not really see that?

Flightplan (2005): Dir: Robert Schwentke / Cast: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan: Energetic yet standard thriller about stress as Jodie Foster boards her daughter onto a plane that carries 400 passengers. Her husband was killed in what appeared to be a suicide and now she and her daughter are transporting the casket. Central plot regards Foster's daughter going missing and her frantic search to find her. The captain and crew passengers are growing frustrated with Foster's demands and the passengers applaud when she is brought to her seat and detained by a law official. Screenplay is fast paced if not familiar and routine but what director Robert Schwentke does do is go inside Foster's mind. Foster is dynamite as expected causing paranoia within a search that is much broader than at first seems. What really brings this plane down in flames and reduces the screenplay to routine formula is the bland and pathetic supporting roles. Peter Sarsgaard as the officer is exactly what we expect and it seems to go without saying that certain actors struggle to access our trust. Sean Bean as the captain, and Erika Christensen as a stewardess are total cardboard. Jodie Foster holds the film together better than the screenwriter does. Theme of emotional duress accompanies the bond between mother and child that is best not broken. Score: 6 ½ / 10

The key to making a really good "mysterious disappearance" film, in my opinion, is how the story pans out after the "reveal". This Jodie Foster-starring feature is absolutely fine for the first two thirds as the mystery attendant on her daughter vanishing from the seat next to her while sleeping on an airbus flight, is carefully built up. I even liked the giveaway's nod to Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" but after that, the film subsides to a ridiculously far-fetched extortion / hijacking plot and a madcap chase through the body of the plane before the predictable happy ending, or should that be landing takes place. I did admire the sense of claustrophobia created in the confines of the aircraft and there's no denying the piece as a whole is a fast-moving mystery-thriller. There's also a welcome caution against xenophobia as Foster initially suspects a pair of Arab passengers but the stereotypical responses of the passengers and crew to the as it turns out innocent men and later to Foster's disruption of their flight is greatly overstated. In fact the singling out of Foster's character by the baddies, which necessitates the pre-flight murder of her husband so that his coffin can be placed on the flight stretches credulity and credibility way beyond breaking point.Foster herself shows herself to be fit and athletic as she searches every nook and cranny of the plane seeking her daughter but otherwise doesn't to have demonstrate many emotions other than anxiety. Sean Bean, as the incredulous pilot trying to calm the situation, is probably the best of the rest.It really is very hard to take seriously a straight-faced thriller set on a plane when we've all seen the corny "Airport" films of the 70's and of course the spoof "Airplane" movies of the 80's. "Flightplan" doesn't manage to reclaim that territory but once you check your disbelief in the overhead locker, you can still sit back and enjoy this particular flight, making sure you stay awake of course.

The quality of Jodie's acting is all that saves this waffle from total crash-landing, the missing kid had plausibility and her frantic search good acting,but the emerging of the 'Air Marshall' as the bad guy, his extortion method and the 'Die Hard 2' type conclusion left me in no doubt that I should have braved the rain and gone for that cycle. To see Jodie walking away from an airliner that was still supposedly carrying a large amount of fuel was as ridiculous as the concept that she would actually detonate the bombs while herself and her daughter were aboard. The predictability of the scene involvement the Arab gentleman was as embarrassing as any attempt to end stereotyping of a particular group. All in all Jodie is so far better than this and its a pity to waster her amazing talent on dragging dirge like this out of the mire.