Flight

I will admit to one thing right off the bat - I am not Denzel Washington's biggest fan. Sure, he's a great actor, when he tries. But for every Training Day, there are a dozen mediocre movies where he merely shows up and coasts along. When Washington is good, he's so good, and he can be similiar to Daniel Day-Lewis in the way that he never takes on a movie that he isn't going to completely rock the part. More often than not, I find Washington disappointing because he's capable of so much more. But, in Flight, he lives up to all of his potential and then some. This is, by far, the best part of his career and he nails it.

Flight is the story of pilot Whip Whitaker (Washington). He's a great pilot, and he knows it. He's cocky and selfish and proud. Whitaker is not a likable character at all. In fact, it sort of seems like Washington goes out of his way to fight his natural urges to be likable. Whitaker has a drinking problem, and a drug problem. The movie opens in a hotel room where he has had a romp with a hot flight attendant half his age. They wake up for their early morning flight from Orlando to Atlanta hung over from the night before, so they do a little coke to straighten themselves out. Once aboard the plane, Whitaker drinks some vodka too. Although drunk and on coke, Whitaker manages to fly the plane out of some initial turbulance and it's smooth sailing... until the last few moments of the flight when all hell breaks loose. What follows is an intense scene, probably the best plane crash ever put on film, and surely the greatest moment in a movie so far this year. Whitaker manages to land the plane, losing very few lives, saving almost everyone and becomes a hero.

Of course, eventually his toxicology screening comes back and it finds out his blood alcohol level was at 2.4! The film then follows Whitaker as he struggles with his alcoholism while trying to help a recovering heroin addict (Kelly Reilly). He also teams up with a lawyer who is almost as cocky as he is (Don Cheadle). Throw in John Goodman as a hilarious drug dealer and Flight is a compelling character study directed by Robert Zemeckis in his first live action movie since Castaway.

Reilly is killer as the heroin addicted Nicole. Goodman is one juicy scene away from a much deserved Oscar nomination (even though he looks like he is wearing his old costumes from The Big Lebowski). But Flight is entirely about the performance of Denzel Washington. He is in virtually every scene and he manages to make a man so unlikable feel compelling and fascinating. There is a particular scene in which he tries to convince a flight attendant to lie for him that would win him an Oscar (in a year he's not up against Daniel Day-Lewis, anyways). Washington is so damn good that words can barely describe.

The movie, however, I had issues with. Besides the heavy handed religious issues and the sometimes over-the-top zealot characters, my biggest problem was the Lifetime movie ending. Denzel's warts and all performance deserves so much better than what he's given at times. Still, Flight is definitely worth seeing because when it's good, just like Denzel's career, it's real, real good.

Grade: B-