A perilious flight

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2013)

Robert Zemeckis has made us wait long for his first live action feature film since Cast Away (2000) and this wait has well been worth it.
Captain William "Whip" Whitaker (Denzel Washington) awakens in an Orlando hotel room after a booze & sex filled night with very little sleep with flight attendant Katerina Marquez (Nadine Velasquez), arguing on the phone to his now divorced wife who is demanding more maintenance for his estranged son's higher education. He uses cocaine to be jolted awake, as he is due to fly SouthJet Flight 227 to Atalanta. The weather is overcast but Whip, being a skilled pilot takes off the plane through turbulence and then turns it over to his co pilot Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty). He then discreetly drinks vodka mixed with orange juice and falls asleep. He is awakened by Evans just before the flight's descent and as he takes the controls, the plane goes into a steep dive due to a malfunction, rapidly falling apart piece by piece. With no other choice, he flips the plane upside down to stop the dive, maneuvers the plane right side up, and then glides it away far from residential areas, crashlanding it in a field.
Whip awakes in an Atalanta hospital with minor injuries, to be greeted by his old friend from the Air Force Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), now representing the airline's pilot union. He tells Whip that his heroic skill saved 96 out of the 102 lives on board. An NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) official then briefs him that Katerina was among the ones killed and that Evans is severely injured and put in a coma. Whip meets Nicole (Kelly Reilly), a recovering drug addict in the hospital and promises to visit her when he is discharged. He is sneaked out of the hospital ward the following morning by his drug dealer friend Harling Mays (John Goodman), who tells him that he has become a media celebrity. Whip drives away to his late father's farm to avoid the media, decides to quit drinking, destroying his stash of alcohol. Unfortunately, he relapses soon. He is called by Charlie and Attorney Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle), the latter informing him that his blood test was performed while he was unconscious revealing a high alcohol content, which could get him a life in prison for both drug and manslaughter.He storms off angily and visits Nicole, finding her getting evicted and asks her to move in with him, beginning a relationship with her. His alcoholism gets worse while Nicole on the other hand is getting rehabilitated. She leaves him seeing no improvement in him. Whip also visits Evans, finding that he has a very little chance of walking again ,who chides him for being drunk that day but accepting that the plane was at fault.Whip is soon discovered by the media in his farmhouse making him flee from there in an intoxicated state to his estranged family, from where he is evicted as well. Hugh informs Whip that he has trashed his toxicology report proving the incompetence of the testing equipment, and now he just has to stay sober till the hearing, led by NTSB investigator Ellen Block (Melissa Leo), which if all goes well will allow Whip to walk away a hero.
Whip is put in a guarded hotel room with no access to alcohol a day before the hearing, but he somehow finds a way to the adjoining room, discovering alcohol in its refrigerator. Hugh and Charlie find Whip passed out the following morning, barely an hour before the hearing is to begin. Harling is called to revive him and he uses cocaine to revive him. A rejuvenated Whip goes for facing the hearing which is to decide his fate.
Will he lie in his usual manner to walk away free to continue his decadent ways or will his conscience finally make him choose the painful but right path? These answers will be best found on screen.
Denzel Washington is one of the best actors to grace the screen and can emote more in one glance than the likes of Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt can with pages of dialogues. His portrayal of a successful person who is suicidally and stupidly dissolving his career, life and happiness in alcohol and drugs is painfully realistic. As a person who shamelessly lies, runs from the truth to the one who finally realizes that he has been going wrong since a long time or as a pilot who remains calm even in the face of an impending deadly crash, his performance is a class act. This is certainly his best role in a decade since Training Day and certainly marks his comeback after a string of forgettable films.
John Goodman gives the best cameo that you can remember and totally steals the show for the hardly ten minutes that he is on screen. Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood are left to play second fiddle to Denzel Washington, but they are nevertheless very effective in the thankless roles the script has for them. Kelly Reilly is effective in her supporting part as well.
Robert Zemeckis does a brilliant job here, and this film is no less than his earlier classics like Forrest Gump and Cast Away. He keeps the story line taut and pacy, avoiding being preachy about drug or alcohol abuse or portraying the protagonist Whip Whitaker in any sympathetic light. The dialogues are crisp and so is the storyline. The technical aspects are well researched and nothing is overdone. The most important question asked by the film is whether a "hero" is pardonable for his other bad deeds ? Should he be allowed to get away for an act of his which would have also endangered the lives of the very people he saved in the first place, just because all ended well? Come aboard ,folks. This one is a memorable ride.