No one says you shouldn't drink and fly

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2013)

'It's not what you know; it's what you can prove'. Remember that great line? Denzel Washington said it in Training Day, his last Oscar-nominated (and Oscar-winning) performance, 11 years ago (that long!). It's a line equally relevant in this film, in which he plays Whip Whitaker, an alcoholic pilot who is hailed for a miracle crash landing, but then vilified as his addiction is exposed.
I had my reservations. I thought DW looked again to be masking his genius in another Unstoppable-type debacle, until I found out that Robert Zemeckis, not Tony Scott, was directing. DW has rarely been better. He delivers one of the most visceral portrayals of alcoholism I've ever seen, right up there with Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses and Nic Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Booze is filmed in such a way as to seem demonic.
The CGI isn't dominant; merely assistive. The famous inverted plane scene is quickly forgotten; not because it's unmemorable, but because the plot, acting and stylisation smoothly take over.
Some story elements are contrived, for example Whip's relationship with fellow drug abuser, Nicole (Kelly Reilly), and the references to God aren't too credible. John Goodman provides wonderful comic relief as Whip's hippy drug dealer, who's such a good friend that he waltzes into hospital, to the tune of 'Sympathy for the Devil', to supply Whip with smokes, booze and stroke mags.
Don Cheadle has an easy role as Whip's criminal lawyer, as does ex-pilot, Charlie (Bruce Greenwood), who looks exactly like a pilot, both of whom do all that they can to prevent Whip from going to jail.
Zemeckis – that chaste genius behind Forrest Gump, Cast Away and the Back to the Future films – opens with a very unorthodox shot: the heart- stopping naked beauty of Nadine Velazquez, who has a minor role and later a posthumous pertinence. Ostensibly designed to reflect Whip's wantonness, it turns out to be the most titillating opening scene since Philip Seymour Hoffman gave Marisa Tomei a bit of the old canine preferential in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. It's a cheap shot but why else did I want to watch the film again?