Flightplan Movie Review

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT. I did my best to review the film without telling too much, but apparently I didn't succeed.

This film was a pleasant surprise. Before I bought my ticket I knew absolutely nothing about Flightplan--which is uncommon. I hadn't seen the trailer, had never heard of it, and had no idea Jodie Foster was in it. Thus, I couldn't even be surprised that "it wasn't anything like the preview," which the reaction of my friends.

Flightplan is about a woman and daughter who just lost their husband/father. While they fly the coffin home to New York in a brand-new jumbo jet, the daughter disappears on the plane while the mother naps. Jodie Foster's character frantically searches for her daughter on the plane, growing more distressed as the girl never turns up. In fact, no passengers or crew members even remember seeing the girl get on the plane.

The rest of the film is a psychological rollercoaster ride as the audience--so adept at spotting the truth of the plot, right?--is pulled from explanation to explanation: the plane will be hijacked by the five Arabs on board and will use the captured girl as a hostage because they need the detailed knowledge of the aircraft that Foster's character, an avionics expert, has; the dark looks between flight crew members indicate some intricate plot yet to be revealed; as Foster's character's hysteria grows, it is revealed that she's been on anxiety drugs since her husband's death, and the airline's documentation reveals the daughter never actually got on the plane; the daughter doesn't actually exist because the father (suicide?) took her with him... you get the idea. The film doesn't give anything away, giving the audience false clues and dead ends. Of course, after the film I kicked myself for not seeing the obvious...

Cinematically, this film is very well-done. The first scene especially is very creative with dissolves, interesting camera angles and scene-switches. The acting is quality, too. Foster, Sarsgard (Garden State), and Sean Bean are convincing and real. The twists at the end were not what I expected. Yet it was simple, and it made sense once everything was resolved.

Flightplan is rated PG-13, I'm assuming for intensity, because there is almost no language and virtually no sex (there was more skin and innuendo in the previews than the actual film). Go see this film. It's worth it, because it respects its audience with good acting, psychological intensity instead of gratuitous violence and the seemingly obligatory sex scene, and a sophisticated script that doesn't insult your intelligence.