Flight

Consequences. It's something we all experience when we do an act or make a statement in which we know is wrong. This is basically the premise of "Flight" where every wrong choice just turns into a downward spiral seemingly to never pull out of.

Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) has a problem with drugs and alcohol; ask his ex-wife, Deana (Garcelle Beauvais), though so far he's managed to complete his flights safely. His luck runs out when a disasterous mechanical malfunction causes he, his crew, co-pilot, Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty), flight attendants, Margaret Thomason (Tamara Tunie), and Katerina Marquez (Nadine Velazquez) and passengers of the plane hurtling toward the ground. Whip pulls off a miraculous crash-landing that results in only six lives lost out of the 102 souls on board. Shaken to the core, Whip vows to get sober-- but when the crash investigation by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and his attorney Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) and union rep Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood) exposes his addiction, he finds himself in an even worse situation.
Through a new found friend Whip met at the hospital, Nicole (Kelly Reilly) and his buddy Harling Mays (John Goodman), can this guy face his demons head on or end up circling the drain and lose everything?

Others to round out the cast are Melissa Leo as Ellen Block, who heads up the NTSB board hearing, James Badge Dale as Gaunt Young Man, Justin Martin as Will, Whip's son, Ron Caldwell as Trevor, Margaret's son, and Darius Woods as Young Will.

This was brilliantly directed by Robert Zemeckis ("Used Cars" '80, "Romncing the Stone" '84, "Back to the Future" '85, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" '88, "Back to the Future Part II" '89, "Back to the Future Part III" '90, "Death Becomes Her" '92, "Forrest Gump" '94, "Contact" '97, "What Lies Beneath" 2000, "Cast Away" 2000, "The Polar Express" '04, "Beowulf" '07, "A Christmas Carol" '09). The way Zemeckis was able to get the audience to think this guy is an incredible hero to this guy who has a ton of issues and back again was pure genius. Of course with a consummate actor like Washington in the lead role certainly made that task less daunting. It was well written by John Gatins ("Summer Catch" '01, "Hard Ball" '01, "Coach Carter" '05, "Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story" '05, "Real Steel" '11). And with the exceptions of a couple of inconsistencies in script, this was well executed. Gatins has been an actor much longer than a writer, but this proves he should definitely receive more work, which does in the form of "Real Steel II" in the works.

This as much as an intense character study of a guy's life being turned upside down. His life has slowly been going down the toilet for years, but it took his tragic event to get him prodded in a direction he really needed to face. Washington's performance was perfection as this pilot who was falling apart before your very eyes, and could possibly garner him a nod come Oscar time. You will be riveted with this film and believing the 'ride' of the film is the crash-landing, but only afterward realize that the 'ride' has only begun after the crash.

Out of 4 stars: 3.5                        Rated: R                            138mins.