Superfly gets high, loses his wings

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2013)

"Flight" stars Denzel Washington as Whit Whitaker, a hotshot commercial pilot. During one flight, Whitaker wrestles his plane to the ground after severe mechanical failure. Though Whitaker is commended for his gutsy landing, news that he was intoxicated during the incident lands him in hot water; he's convicted of manslaughter.
Unsurprisingly for a film directed by Robert Zemeckis, a protégée of Stephen Spielberg, "Flight's" action sequences are thrilling. But like Spielberg, Zemeckis is also incapable of directing swearing, nudity, sex or even human beings. Most of "Flight" is thus cringe-worthy, Zemeckis trying desperately to reinvent himself as an "edgy", "gritty", R-rated film-maker after a string of PG13 flicks and children's animations. The result is a film which is one part popcorn thriller, one part indie movie and one part message movie.
"Flight's" final act, in which Whitaker admits he's an alcoholic, sees Whitaker journeying from train wreck to redemption. The film itself is awash with Christian symbolism (Zemeckis is Catholic) and continues the cliché of alcoholics and/or depressives hooking up with beautifully dysfunctional women (Kelly Reilly).
As he's borne of the Spielberg school of directing, Zemeckis plays each note with a sledgehammer. Whitaker drinks entire kegs of alcohol, raids entire hotel rooms for booze, the film's soundtrack is distractingly literal and Zemeckis' forays into R rated territory (swearing, drug use, nudity, porn sets etc) are resolutely awkward; like watching your grandparents having sex whilst your mom tells you about her first boyfriend. Zemeckis is not only a kid trying to grow up, but, like Whitaker, one who is trying to convince us that he already has.
Stylistically, "Flight" resembles Zemeckis' "Castaway", with its spectacular plane crashes and solitary men. Thematically it resembles Zemeckis' "Contact", in which a tightly wound atheist wrestled with questions of faith, spirituality and control. Whitaker undergoes the same narrative arc, relinquishing illusions of personal choice, personal judgement and bowing down instead to real conditions. "I have control," Whitaker utters, both in the cockpit and out, but he doesn't. The film's plane crash encapsulates his nosedive into realisation. "God help me," he then utters, before letting others (and Jesus?) take the reigns.
"Flight" stars John Goodman as a flashy drug dealer. He looks like he stepped out of a Tarantino movie, his character odd in what otherwise seems like an anti-narcotics flick. "Flight's" best scene? Whitaker flipping a plane over and flying it upside down like a casual blaxploitation hero. While every white boy on-board is wetting his pants, Whitaker looks like he's grooving to Miles Davis. The film's been accused of racism - the first major black pilot in cinema being a drunk criminal? - but outside of Spike Lee's flicks, Washington's always been white.
6/10 – Worth one viewing.