Outstanding direction and a solid lead performance make this one work.

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2015)

Despite a preachy screenplay delivered with sledgehammer-like intensity on a well-worn cinematic subject, 2012's Flight is a riveting and emotionally manipulative drama that effectively showcases the horrors of addiction on a surprising canvas and delivers the goods, thanks to polished direction and a powerhouse lead performance as a very unlikable character.
This uncompromising drama stars Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker (terrible character name), a veteran airline pilot who we meet the morning after an evening of sex, booze, and cocaine with a flight attendant who is glanced snorting a huge line of cocaine and then seen boarding a plane that he is actually scheduled to fly. After navigating the plane through some brief initial turbulence, Whitaker actually has another drink while assuring the 102 passengers aboard that everything is going to be all right. Whitaker then returns to the cockpit and the plane malfunctions and is forced to glide to an emergency crash landing. Thanks to Whitaker's expertise and experience as a pilot, the crash only produces six fatalities, four passengers and two flight attendants and Whitaker is initially proclaimed a hero until the toxicology report reveals that he was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine while flying, which could result in four charges of manslaughter and the rest of his life in prison.
This film angers almost immediately because it seems like we are supposed to sympathize with Whitaker, but I found that impossible. What is made clear here is the denial, rationalization, and justification that goes through the mind of an alcoholic, but there is no excusing it here because Whitaker's actions resulted in the loss of life. It is further exacerbated by the fact that Whitaker knows he is wrong and and actually tries to cover up what he did. We watch in horror and disgust as Whitaker is released from the hospital, escapes to his family hideaway and spends hours throwing away all of the liquor that he has hidden in the house, a lengthy and effective scene filmed with a hand-held camera that shows the lengths an alcoholic will go to cover up what he's doing. We then watch Whitaker try to save his own ass when he realizes it is on the line by looking for crew members, including the co-pilot who may never walk again because of the crash, to have his back when they are asked to testify against him. Any sympathy the character might have evoked disappears during the scene where he asks the head flight attendant (Tamara Tunie) to lie for him.
Director Robert Zemeckis has mounted a familiar story on a unique canvas that will make the viewer give pause for a myriad of reasons...watching Whitaker's story is properly disturbing as it makes us think twice, not only about drinking and drugging, but about ever boarding a plane again without seeing the pilot's toxicology report that an airline's attorney (Don Cheadle) actually tries to bury in an attempt to save Whitaker's undeserving ass, but even those actions turn out to be pointless and Whitaker eventually must suffer the consequences of his actions, which seems to be the underlying theme of this story, but the really disturbing aspect here is how long it takes for these consequences to surface and the deep denial of Whitaker's addiction.
Zemeckis directs with a master hand again...the plane crash he presents here is as harrowing as the one he mounted in Cast Away. The shots of the plane completely inverted are dizzying and frightening. Washington completely invests in a completely unsympathetic character and delivers a performance of such power it merited him an Oscar nomination. Cheadle is solid as the attorney as are Bruce Greenwood and John Goodman as professional and personal allies of Whitaker and mention should also be made of Kelly Reilly as Nicole, a pathetic heroine junkie who becomes Whitaker's enabler up to a point. Yes, the message here is delivered with a sledgehammer but it works and the climax doesn't quite ring true considering what we have witnessed prior, but the denouement is somewhat satisfying as we do see Whitaker pay for his actions, though his alleged redemption implied near the ending is a bit much. Still a riveting film experience thanks to a harrowing story and one of our greatest actors delivering the goods.