Thursday, September 12, 2013

Flightplan (Robert Schwentke, 2005) Review

I hate it when schedules fail. I had some films that I planned on watching and reviewing but things came up which preventing me from watching them so I had to improvise and review the last film I saw. That would be Flightplan, the first film outside of Silence of the Lambs that I've seen Jodie Foster in...shocking, I know but that was her most famous role...arguably. Well, let's take a look at Flightplan.

Following the death of her husband in Berlin, Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) has to fly home with her daughter with his coffin. Part way through the flight, Kyle wakes up to find her daughter missing so Kyle sets out to find her daughter who has to still be on the plane. When the crew start to believe that she is unwell, Kyle must fight through adversity and prove to the crew that he daughter is still on the plane.

I'm going to get one thing out of way first. The first half of the film does a good job of creating a Hitchcock-esque thriller that generally seemed like it was going somewhere unique however it drops the ball half way through. It becomes a generic action film with a conspiracy wedged in and an action packed finale that seems like a complete shift from the tone that the film had been making throughout the earlier parts of the film. There was promise for a memorable thriller but it comes out as a generic action film.

Jodie Foster brings her usual good performances (nowhere near as good as Silence of the Lambs though) and it was nice to see Sean Bean play against type as a normal person for once. Peter Sarsgaard fills in for the generic character trope that Carson portrays well so at least the acting is good. There wasn't that much else that was memorable except that you can see more of planes than you would probably see...that's about it. Nothing else stuck out.

Flightplan  shows promise that it could be a good thriller however it takes a dive half way through into the realm of generic action. The acting is good which is what you might expect from a cast featuring Jodie Foster and Sean Bean but there isn't really much else that stuck out. The first half was fine but midway through it loses its way. Actors are good, story is not.

Verdict:
5/10
A film with promise that decides to throw it out of the window in favour of generic action.

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