"Flight" Soars for 30 min; Denzel Gets High and Becomes John Q. Addict for the Remainder

Rating: 5/10 (10 February 2013)

As far as the 7.4 rating, I think that's fair though a bit inflated.
While the script did attempt to explore some details about Whip's character, other than his addiction, that attempt wasn't very effective. This attempt can be summed up in Whip and Nicole's chat where they say stuff like "so what about your dad?" --of course after having already bonded over a cig in the hospital (believable if you smoke/know how smokers bond) and likely made the beast with 2 backs. The problem is, while their initial "getting-to-know-you" is OK, their relationship devolves into a lame second-date feel to it. And then suddenly the heroin addict is going to AA meetings (with no real motivation for attaining sobriety) while Denzel becomes a bad influence on her. It doesn't really deepen Whip's character either since all we really learn of him is from a random home video of him as a kid and the fact that he is estranged from his ex and son. But, there really isn't much depth to his personality or to his struggle with addiction at all.
In fact, the movie kind of glorifies addiction. Sure, Whip's estranged from his family ostensibly because he's a drunk, but he never really seems to miss his ex-wife or son, save for one scene where he randomly drops in so we can have a near "I learned it by watching YOU dad!" scene from those old anti-drug commercials. Yes, Whip FREQUENTLY drinks and drives his whip around (while never seeming out of control of his vehicle--plane included), and enjoys snorting coke with a hippie/stoner John Goodman, which is sure to make kids just say no. Have a raging hangover? No problem, just do a few lines of coke and go for the "banana boat." In fact, at one point, Denzel was chugging what looked like a GALLON of vodka while driving, and showing no ill effects at all...MAJOR suspension of disbelief required. And yeah, not necessary, since we already get the fact he could be an effective pilot while stoned. The drug culture in this movie is a bit gratuitous.
While the lack of character depth and the unbelievably portrayed drug culture (heroin addict spontaneously going cold turkey, minimal impairment from consuming HUGE quantities of alcohol) certainly detracts from this movie, the film was actually not terrible.
In fact, my solution to what would've made this adequate movie really good is as follows:
1. Cut out the ~5 min nude scene from the beginning entirely. Only a convoluted explanation could tie that into the ending, when Whip all-of-a-sudden owns up.
2. Keep the initial plane crash scene similar, but instead of loosely basing it on a real crash (but with an unbelievable outcome), it would have been good to make the predicament and solution more physically possible. For example, I've seen pilots mention that this plane "elevator" stuck in this fashion wouldn't have allowed the plane to glide at the end--it would've been a nose dive.
3. Instead of introducing Nicole for really no purpose, maybe some more emotional depth could've been created around Whip's ex-wife and him ala Dennis Haysbert's character in the movie HEAT. Perhaps, the ex-wife could've still been in love with him, but wouldn't be with him without his sobriety. So, maybe a motivation for Denzel's character to get sober would actually be to get his family back.
4. Perhaps there could've been a plot device such as a flashback or two to show why/how Whip wanted to become a pilot and/or how he got so good at it. I feel we were just supposed to accept his piloting deftness and his co-pilot's whining for no reason.
5. A trial/hearing portion of the movie could have dealt with perhaps a villain, as there really wasn't someone against Denzel's character, save for himself, which is true of all addicts, but still...an external villain is often more compelling. Maybe the co-pilot is out to get him because his legs are crushed? Maybe he has a scorned former lover come forward and rat him out? Some character we can rally against, so Whip could've been more of a hero than an anti-hero. I mean, just because he was drunk flying the plane doesn't make him bad morally. It makes him an addict and breaking the law. But saving all those people, and defeating his addiction could've granted him hero status in this film had there been a villain to overcome. As it was, Whip leaves the audience with no really strong feelings for/against him.
6. While addiction is necessary to tell this story, something more streamlined like in RAY, such as checking into a clinic, and overcoming the addiction in 15 minutes (on screen) would have left more time to flesh out characters and plot details. Heck, he could've fallen off the wagon and gone back to rehab, and it would STILL be less than half the screen time FLIGHT spent on the alcoholism thing.
7. Get rid of the whole SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION feel at the end. Whip flying off to Jamaica after having reconciled with his ex-wife or becoming a big-time aviation trainer would've been more effective than the whole, though-I'm-in-jail-now-I've-never-been-so-free line. Andy Dufresne's character from SHAWSHANK kinda owns prison paradox humor when he said it took going to prison to make him into a crook. While it works great in SHAWSHANK, that movie has rendered such prison humor/paradoxes to be trite.
TL;DR: Had they developed Whip's character more, maybe Denzel would've had an answer when his estranged son asked him "who are you?" at the end. That was for the plot to answer, though it failed to do so in a satisfying fashion. Unless there will be a FLIGHT 2? Can't be, right?