Does one choose to drink, or NOT? Magnificent psychological portrait of a drunk. One of Denzel Washington's best performances of his entire carreer.

Rating: 10/10 (6 August 2018)

I feel this is one of the best psychological portraits of a drunk. And simultaneously I believe this is one of the best performances of Denzel Washington's entire carreer. I have seen ALL his films, from the eighties till now. This performance just makes me silent, in awe... I wanna advice the fans of other very popular Denzel Washington actionmovies to think twice though, because this is not a regular fun packed action movie at all. It is more suited for the arthouse movie lover, who is into subtle portraits of human shortcomings. This is an intelligent, slowburning movie with lots of room for dialogues. I love it, but the masses might find it boring.
Denzel Washington's character is severely addicted to alcohol, but he is in full denial. While being drunk he shouts: "I choose to drink, because I dont speak to my wife and son anymore. But I choose to not speak to them anymore and therefore I choose to drink". Does this make any sense? To an alcoholic it perhaps does.
Booze is harder to get clean of than many other harddrug, like heroin for instance. Booze is everywhere. Temptation to start drinking again lurks around every corner. Only the alcholic himself can decide to make a clean start. First he must acknowledge though that he is a drunk. Then he must have something to live for, when being sober. Otherwise the temptation to surpress the inner mental pain wont go away after being sober and will trigger another drinking rampage. And another..
Director Robert Zemeckis isnt know for dramas at all. A few years later he made "Allied" with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, another great subtle portrait of deceit. And deceit is what lies beneath any addiction too, because one has to fool oneself into believing that drugs are the cure to make any pain go away.It does for the short term, that's why drugs are so evil, they lure you in with their promise of quick relief of any pain, but drugs slowly destroy your soul in the long run...
I wanna give lots of praise for the soundtrack, editing, photography and direction. This is one of those dramas in which everthing just worked out perfect. Powerful and subtle. Doomed, yet still hopeful. Those extremes come to mind, thinking about "Flight". I believe this to be THE masterpiece of director Robert Zemeckis' entire carreer.
In memory of Ed Limato (1936-2010)