FLIGHT (Robert Zemeckis, Paramount, 2012)

Like its protagonist Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) the film FLIGHT (Robert Zemeckis, Paramount, 2012) is essentially a good film albeit a flawed one. Washington plays Whitaker, a drunk and an addict who happens to also be a pilot, a heroic one at that. Whitaker does his best throughout the film to make sure you loathe and despise him yet somehow we still root for him to get out of his own way. The film mirrors this behavior. There are enough detriments to the film; an overly long narrative, no truly likable characters, a snails pace to the final two-thirds of the film and just enough references to overt Christianity that your eyes get fatigued from rolling. Still the film redeems itself by its finish and one walks away thinking "that wasn't so bad". Which in my estimation is not the feeling you want to leave the theater with. The narrative to the film is actually good. It is interesting, compelling and well developed. But the strengths to the narrative also hinder it. Because the narrative is well developed it allows the film to meander along at a very slow pace making the film too long. The characters are interesting and very compelling but they also are train wrecks; not people you want to root for or expect anything redeeming to come from their actions. The narrative is also predictable with the films ending being readily seen well in advance. I also feel that with the subject matter present the film lacked resonance and power. Think back to a prior Zemeckis masterpiece, FORREST GUMP (Zemeckis, Paramount, 1994). The feelings and emotions, the power of the narrative and it's characters still resonate. FLIGHT lacks this and ultimately this hurts the film. Technically Zemeckis is as accomplished a director as can be found. The films first twenty minutes show this perfectly. The entire sequence up until the crash is set up beautifully and it is masterful film craftsmanship. Normally I would talk aspects up that I was particularly fond of but here I need to talk about a simple bit of casting. The casting of Katerina Marquez (Nadine Velazquez) was good, I thought she was great in the role. BUT, damn it she was almost too distracting. You cannot keep your eyes away from her during the entire hotel scene. She epitomizes the 'gaze aesthetic' in film. At USC when I learned about gaze aesthetic it was Brigitte Bardot in Godard's French classic Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, Embassy Pictures, 1963). To be in such esteemed company is high praise indeed. High praise will deservedly be given to Denzel Washington and this film begins and ends with him. Whip Whitaker is a great role for Denzel. Denzel has given us a career full of strong, fierce, confident, prideful and impervious characters. With Whip Whitaker though we see a man with faults, someone broken. Denzel plays the role giving Whip vulnerability and fallibility. There is even courage to the portrayal. It is these traits that Denzel infuses in the role which makes us root for Whip, it makes us pull for the man to get out of his own way and overcome his demons. We want to hate this man but we pull for him and want him to get better. To me this is one of the truest marks of a really great actor, this ability to make us feel two divergent emotions simultaneously. This is one of Denzel's best performances ever and one can only hope more roles like this are in store for us from him. (a final aside) after seeing the film I talked to a pilot friend and although I knew the film was loosely based on a factual crash my friend assures me what Whip did in the cockpit is and was completely legitimate. That makes the film better for me somehow. Actually it makes me want to see the first sequence again.