FLIGHTPLAN

By: BRIAN THOMAS
Review Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Filmmakers have kept a respectful distance away from airline thrillers since 09-11-2001, but that period of mourning ended in 2005, with more than one picture exploiting the new state of air travel to lend extra dimension to the action. Not that they deliberately seek to make a buck off of tragedy but the heightened level of nervousness about security can't be ignored, and any story about air travel has to take it into account. FLIGHTPLAN doesn't pussyfoot around the issue, throwing suspicion the way of some Arab characters as soon as there's any suspicion to be thrown. If one remembers that we're dealing with a movie made in 2005, the red herring aspect becomes obvious. But it's a testament to the filmmaking skills of director Robert Schwentke that the snare works, if only for a moment of shame for the viewer.

Jodie Foster stars as Kyle Pratt, an aeronautical engineer who, grieving over the recent death of her husband, gathers up her daughter to take his body home from Berlin to the USA. The flight takes place on board a brand new luxury airliner that Pratt herself helped to design, a conceit that accomplishes two things for the picture, both providing a setting that won't be held too accountable to any real aircraft design, and making it possible for Pratt to know the jet well from one end to the other. It also helps in selling the hi-tech, double-decker plane as another major character. When Kyle awakes from a nap, she finds that her little Julia has disappeared, forcing the mother to search for the daughter throughout the child of her mind. On quizzing flight attendants, passengers and crew, she finds that no one knows where Julia has gone, and it seems that no one even noticed the girl at all.

The obvious model here is Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 THE LADY VANISHES, in which a little old woman disappears from a train and only heroine Margaret Lockwood seems to have ever seen her. Lockwood finds help from fellow traveler Michael Redgrave, and when Kyle seems to connect with passenger Peter Sarsgaard, we have high hopes that she's found an ally in her quest. But as things keep turning against her, we learn that Sarsgaard's character Carson is actually a sky marshal who seems determined to maintain order on his flight. Mrs. Pratt represents an element of chaos, and as evidence mounts that her daughter may not have ever been on board, Carson and pilot Sean Bean step in to restrain what is apparently a passenger endangering everyone in the panic of a nervous breakdown. Similar to the role he played in THE SKELETON KEY, Sarsgaard is held out to the audience as a source of hope, but the story keeps us guessing as to when and how his ultimate intentions toward the heroine will be revealed.


One flaw in the web is that such a fabulous construction as the airliner is not equipped with some form of security camera system that would've saved everyone a lot of trouble. Another weak spot comes when a certain piece of false information fed to those in authority furthers the plot. Helping to keep us from noticing things like this is a huge casting coup Jodie Foster carries the picture and holds things together with amazing grace. On his commentrak, Schwentke (who was born in Germany and made his first films there, but speaks English with an American accent) talks about the fact that the script was written for a male lead, but when Foster became available it became obvious how much rewriting the picture for her would add to it. As she's shown so many times before, she can mix strength and vulnerability so wonderfully and believably that she fascinates, claiming viewer identification even when we're questioning her sanity. The combination of skills brought to bear by Foster and the rest of the cast along with Schwentke's good sense of story make for a top notch thriller, with action that provides thrills without seeming too farfetched.

The DVD transfer is also top notch, with a crystal clear image and soundtracks that go from strong 5.1 Surround to powerful DTS. The disc also includes featurettes on the production, including one on the design of the plane.

Copyright © 2006 Brian Thomas, author of the massive book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS.
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