Flight

Flight directed by Robert Zemeckis staring Denzel Washington, Bruce Greenwood, Don Cheadle, and John Goodman. 

Make no mistake this is Denzel Washington’s movie, he’s in virtually every frame of the movie, so if you’re not a Washington fan I wouldn’t recommend this movie to you. This is the story where the central conflict is man versus man: Washington versus his personal demons. The movie is slow and has its own pace which I think could have been better with some trimmings in the storyline, I’ll get to that later on, but overall it’s a good movie and way better than I thought it was going to be. Make no mistake Washington has a screen presence that many people in Hollywood don't have. 

 I’m honestly really surprised this movie was made by Zemeckis because all of his films have either a zaniness to them or a touch of sentimentality that just never rings true. This is the most accomplished film he's made, his most honest film, and his best directed film I think. There’s just a maturity in this film that was seriously lacking from the over bloated Castaway even though it wanted to be there but I never once felt it was. That maturity is in this film. 

 Part of the responsibility of that maturity being there has to fall on the shoulders of Washington who literally carries this film and gives one hell of a performance. His performance is never over the top but to me was more subtle and honest. His performance near the end when he finally confronts his alcoholism was some really good acting. I like how his character was an asshole and jerk throughout the movie, the screenplay never shied away from that and kept that as part of his character, but yet he was still somewhat likeable.  I found myself rooting for him to overcome those demons that were dragging him down. Part of that is due to Washington himself and part of that is also due to the screenplay. They didn’t make him a super nice guy. He was a guy that had a problem with alcoholism.  This was a movie about him struggling to confront that problem and admit to himself he had a problem. 

One of the most talked about parts of this movie is the plane crash scene which was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time and deserves to be talked about, because it provides the whole catalyst for everything that transpires with Washington’s character’s life to get him to confront his alcohol problem. Zemeckis’ direction on that plane crash was some seriously epic direction and his choice to use “found” footage to show the plane crash later on in the film was a really good idea and used extremely well where it was placed throughout the movie. 

This movie also had an honestly earned sentimental ending unlike the cheap one Castaway had. Here it was earned. There is only mistake in the movie that I can see. That mistake was made early on in the film when the story takes way too much time to focus on the “origin story” of a minor character. This is precious time that needs to stay focused on Washington’s character, by not doing that it takes the viewer away from his character thus taking the viewer away from the story. These scenes with the minor character could easily have been visually shown later when the character is with Washington.  Also some dialogue could have been added to explain things, instead of using them in the beginning where they didn’t need to be. It’s just too much time taken away from Washington’s character and his character’s story. His character is the story and his character has the arc. The focus needs to stay on him.