The Parable of Whip...Or the Sinner Redeemed (with nudity, drugs and a plane crash)

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2013)

Robert Zemeckis, like his contemporary Steven Spielberg, is a director who has built his reputation as a master of dark tinged family fantasy that side lines in "serious drama", dramas that however carry over certain romantic, sentimental and even sugary aspects from their family friendly works into dark hard adult dramas.
"Flight" is Zemeckis first live action movie since 2000s "Castaway", a film with which it shares many aspects. Both feature a terrifyingly realistic plane crash, both isolate their protagonists in a Hellish personal purgatory where their sins are cleansed by graphic suffering, and both end with redemption and the promise of life renewed. Both also have a sort of "spiritual undercurrent" which hints at a hidden hand behind events, of a destiny meant to be, a "divine plan" unfolding. It also bears some semblance to the 2007 reimagining of "Beowulf", in which the epic tale of the flawless hero became a story of hubris and excess being tempered by realisation, and of sins cleansed and redemption won with suffering. And like "Beowulf", this features some superficial "Christian bashing" (here in the form of the Christian co-pilot and his bizarre cult like wife) as a clever bluff to avoid them looking too "Churchy" for secular audiences.
The story of a brilliant but hopelessly alcohol and drug addicted airline pilot whose inebriated/high state actually saves a plane from certain disaster, a man whose Hero status comes under scrutiny as investigations reveal his many weaknesses could have gone in many different ways. Here Zemeckis has chosen to go with the "Castaway"/"Beowulf" sinner redeemed arc, and so concentrates almost entirely on Whip Whittaker (Washington)'s destructive addiction to booze and drugs, something he superficially tries to fight but actually accepts as simply part of who he is, despite the destruction it causes in his own personal life and the obvious danger it puts his passengers and crewmates into. We get hints at greater events happening around this, the investigation into the crash, the media frenzy and the building up of a folk hero who is then systematically demolished, the political blame games being played by Airline, Manufacturers and Pilot's union, the trauma of the survivors, lover Nicole's battle against Heroin and her forging of a new life etc, but they are all happening elsewhere, in another movie perhaps.
Around the fallen sinner Whip we get a circle of interesting characters played by brilliant actors. Principal among them is recovering Heroin addict Nicole (played by Kelly Reilly, best known as Mary Watson in the Downey jr/Law Sherlock Holmes films) who in many ways is a more fleshed out version of the troubled sculptress that Tom Hanks eventually ends up with in "Cast Away". Here also the opening act suggests a synchronicity between their stories, a joint destiny working its way into being. A jovial Cancer patient who crashes their "chance" meeting in hospital all but spells out that their meeting is no coincidence. We get the sense that Nicole is the star of her own dramatic story, happening contemporaneously to this one, but all we see of it is the parts that intersect with Whips leaving us naturally wanting more. Then there is Whips friend and dealer Harley (played by "Fallen" co-star John Goodman, who is introduced to "Sympathy for the Devil" perhaps as a knowing wink) who has little screen time but always saves the day with Cocaine (the film seems almost like an advert for the miraculous properties of Coke, which is bizarre to say the least!) There's Whip's old buddy from the Navy Days Charlie (the ever brilliant Bruce Greenwood) now his Pilot's Union rep who tries to save his career, the hotshot lawyer Lang (Don Cheadle) who goes from antagonist to supporter who does likewise, Nadine Velasquez as Katerina, the hot Latino hostess who shares Whips bed and vices, dies a heroine in the crash and eventually becomes the light beyond the grave that inspires his final redemption, and Margaret (Tamara Tunie) the only surviving hostess who helps save the day during the crash but becomes a stern moral voice in the days after. Melissa Leo also appears at the end as the chair of the inquest, but her character never escapes being a symbolic gatekeeper to paradise rather than a realistic hardnosed investigator.
The film takes many liberties with reality in both the flying and airline politics scenarios (as pointed out by many industry professionals here on IMDb) and the actions of many of the characters are often contrived and illogical. Whip himself is a heroic soul who nonetheless also has to be a prize asshole and unlikable defecation for 90% of the film's running time in order to enact his final redemption, so he is a protagonist we can't really like or warm to. As mentioned, everyone else is dropping in from completely separate stories so they are not really fleshed out personalities.
The opening crash is brilliantly shot (if fantastical) and the stuff of nightmares for those scared of flying. The film is also shot through with moral ambiguities, none of which are actually addressed, leaving the audience to make their own minds up about it. In order to fully do justice to the scenario here, we would need a mini- series that covered all the angles, but this is a stand-alone film so we only get one real story, Whips. Washington is excellent of course, showing his acting chops again after years of headlining moribund actioners (with an Oscar nod to show for it) as are the co-stars.
I suppose how you feel about the film's message will depend on your personal beliefs, but as a human drama it can be enjoyed by anyone who has the stomach to watch largely self-inflicted agony for 2 and a half hours.