First Review - Flight

It cannot be denied that Robert Zemeckis is capable of great things within the world of film, directing some all time classics like Forrest Gump and Back to The Future.  But it can also not be denied that his new film Flight, starring Denzel Washington, is not for lovers of action packed blockbusters as the trailer may have made out but for an audience wishing to see a hard hitting drama.

The film revolves around the legal battle surrounding Denzel Washington after piloting and landing a doomed plane whilst drunk and high on cocaine, as well as the personal battles he must face to prove his innocence. Washington meets others along this struggle who attempt to help get his life back on track, including Kelly Reilly’s character, Nicole, who I would have loved to see more of through the film as I feel her back story could have been expanded much further. Washington and Reilly’s characters bond over their similar drug habits and although they are both trying to change their lives she is much more successful at doing so.

Throughout the film there are moments leave the viewer wondering and praying that Washington’s character, Whip, will do the right thing for himself and those around him, these moments aren’t always followed by what could have been expected, one reason which I feel this film has its elements of genius. Although the narrative could originally be seen as sort of one dimensional, there are elements which leave surprise and gut wrenching anger towards Denzel’s character.

Whip Whitticker, this drunken, cocaine addicted pilot puts the lives of hundreds of people at risk before every  flight, yet Washington brings a performance to this character which makes you put aside how immoral you feel his actions are, in order to understand the difficulty he is going through. His character should have been hated, but it has been scripted and performed in a way that is well worthy of the academy award nominations for best actor and original screenplay that this film has received.

Negatives surrounding this film I feel are very minimal, if the drama genre is one that does not interest you then this film will not be of your liking, the trailer may have suggested a lot more elements of Denzel’s heroic actions within his plane however it was really only contained within the first twenty minutes. The film, running at just over 2 hours did seem to be dragged out for quite a bit longer than this, but for everything that it contains I feel as though this can be looked over as it is defiantly already going to be one of the best dramas released this year and we are only in February!