FLIGHTPLAN

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: language, violence

Rated:

Have you ever been on an international flight? The airplanes are enormous. Kyle (Jodi Foster) helps design them for a living. She works out of Berlin. Her husband has died from a tragic fall from the roof of their building, and she is taking her six year old daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) back to the United States.

They are happily settled onto the plane, along with four hundred other passengers, and take off on a stormy night. Because first class is not completely full, Kyle moves with her daughter into a row further back where they can stretch out and sleep. When she wakes up three hours later, Julia is missing. Questioning the flight attendants does nothing to unearth her. She's not in any of the bathrooms, down the hall, or reading in the lounge. Her teddy bear has been left behind. Kyle begins to panic, alerting the attention of the resident sky martial, Carson (Peter Sarsgaard). She insists on speaking with the captain, who emerges, listens to her terror-stricken story, and then agrees to a search of the plane. All passengers are ordered to return to their seats, while the flight crew conducts an extensive investigation.

After more than an hour, Kyle is called to the flight deck. Captain Richard (Sean Bean) informs her that he is extremely sorry, but they have no evidence that Julia was ever on board. No boarding pass. None of the flight attendants remember seeing her. Medicated for anxiety over her husband's recent death, Kyle wonders if she is beginning to lose her mind. A call to the Berlin authorities reveals that her daughter was killed in the same tragic accident that ended her husband's life. But Kyle is determined to unearth the truth, and will stop at nothing to prove her daughter's existence.

It seems like major competing studios release similar films in a row, which really doesn't do them any good because people tend to compare them. The most recent comparison we could make is with Red Eye, which I felt was much scarier and I enjoyed more. Flightplan is a fairly good thriller and has wonderful acting performances from everyone involved, but it didn't resonate with me as much as it should have. I did not guess the conclusion but had a pretty good idea of who the bad guys were from the offset. I have never been on a plane that size, so I cannot vouch for the credibility of her situation or comment on the interior design, except to say that I found it slightly unbelievable. There is some beautiful principal photography and the film builds steadily to a climax, while maintaining the increasing terror Kyle feels at losing her daughter. It keeps the audience guessing as to whether or not she is insane, if her daughter ever existed, or if a ghost accompanied her onto the plane.

The worst audiences have to look out for is occasionally graphic violence and language. A woman attacks a man, who later pushes her so that she falls and knocks herself unconscious. Kyle shoves people out of her way, and attacks two separate individuals, one with a fire extinguisher and the other with her first, with bloody results. An explosion kills someone. There are a handful of mild profanities, two abuses of GD, and separate abuses each of Jesus and Christ. It's implied but not shown that two flight attendants have a sexual tryst instead of searching for Julia. Kyle worries about people doing "bad things" to her little girl.

The opening sequence of the film is highly misleading and confusing, flashing back and forth between Kyle identifying her husband's body in the morgue and walking with him through the streets of Berlin. Terrorism suspicion becomes involved at one point, creating hostilities between two Arab passengers and the rest of the plane. I didn't feel the sky marshal was all that convincing, but it was worth the price of admission. Have you got a good Flightplan?