Flight takes what would be a good movie and brings it crashing to the ground

Rating: 4/10 (2 October 2013)

Flight takes everything and "does it to the max," as people used to say. It's not enough that Denzel Washington's character is an alcoholic. He has to be an alcoholic who does cocaine and drinks while flying. Of course this is the initial premise of the film so it can be forgiven. Let's also overlook that Mr Washington's character is the only one who could land the plane. What comes next is a lot of drama about alcoholism and drugs that doesn't even bother to portray either of those things accurately. No, that's not enough. Instead it has to portray them "to the max!" This turns an otherwise interesting character piece into a generic paint-by-numbers melodrama. Even the music choices in the movie are the very songs you hear in this sort of movie. It sort of feels like they glued two movies together, a generic alcoholic melodrama and a plane disaster. Rarely do these two films seem to overlap or affect one another. It may as well have been two separate films.
Flight could have made a great film. It spends too much time on the generic alcoholism melodrama and not the part that makes it unique, the part about the plane crash! I'm not saying the whole film should have taken place in the sky. It would have been more interesting if Mr Washington wasn't the hero in the crash, if his drug abuse and alcoholism may have been responsible for the deaths of some passengers. Instead there could be an underlying uncertainty about whether his negligence killed those people or if it was truly "an act of God." They could have toned down some more elements to make it more realistic. Then the rest of the film could have been about his denial and acceptance of what he did; and also about whether he would be punished for his actions. Where it stands it's a very mixed messaged film that tries too hard to make Mr Washington into a hero and a villain without aiming anywhere in the middle.
I think Denzel Washington is an amazing actor... or at least he used to be. His movies have really gone downhill over the recent years and so has his acting ability. He doesn't make a very believable drunk or pilot in the movie. He relies on old clichés instead of bringing anything real to the film. Of course that may not be his fault. An actor is only as good as the script he's given and Flight has an abundance of problems.
Lastly, there are a few (I won't spoil them here) eye rolling sequences in the film. Doing everything "to the max" is fine but it doesn't work in a drama. It's more of a comedy thing and it's a another major reason why this film just doesn't work.