Flight Movie Review

Rating: Null/10 (6 October 2015)

Immediately, a plane carrying over one hundred passengers begins rolling over, catches a wing on a church steeple, and glides into a field. The thrilling yet dramatic movie, "Flight", starts abruptly with a crash. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, also director of big named pictures such as "The Polar Express", "Forest Gump", and "Cast Away", takes on a new story. Under phenomenal direction, it has a meaningful, but slow plot, and exceptional characters who are easily relatable. Unfortunately, the story takes an extremely long time to tell. Don't get too cozy!
"Flight" is a tale of Pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) who came in clutch during an ordinary commercial flight. While being 3,000 feet in the air, Flight 227 to Atlanta hit turbulence, began to break down, and lost altitude at a rapid pace. Whitaker's instincts led the plane to roll onto its topside and crash into a field only losing six lives. He is immediately claimed to be an "American hero" as no other pilot could save that plane in the same situation as attempted on a simulator. Whitaker's title as an "American hero" was short lived as blood tests came back with disturbing evidence. Whitaker found himself sitting next to a defense lawyer, Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle), who informed him that his addiction needed to end as it has previously destroyed his marriage and relationship with his only son. His next step is to testify in front of a critical crowd about the fateful flight.
Denzel Washington's role as Whip Whitaker is very captivating as he maintains the role of an alcoholic, yet proceeds to state the fact that he "is the only one who could have landed the flight". His solid acting is never overpowering, and he easily becomes connected with the audience through his likable and smooth personality. Don Cheadle plays an excellent Hugh Lang as an intelligent and significant lawyer. Because the plot is devious, it proves how exceptional both men are as actors. They even create several emotional scenes together, and individually throughout the film. For example, the touching scenes together during the trial when determining what Whitaker's fate would be. Hugh Lang, Cheadle, also portrays a positive image for the audience as he promotes Whitaker, Washington, to become sober. Together they make the film deeply affect the audience.
The movie was a change of pace for Zemeckis as it is classified as his first "action thriller" movie in about 12 years, but "Flight" was not very action-packed. The two-hour plot could have been simplified and more compact instead of drifting along at a snail pace. It is hard for most people to sit through time-consuming movies and be entertained the entire duration.
Washington has had several positive performances throughout his career including his performance in "Flight", but that was not enough to give the movie two thumbs up. All of the elements in the movie were spot on, but the length of the movie diminishes its excellence. I would recommend everyone to watch it once, and only once.