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I also found Kelly Reilly to be very affecting and engaging as Nicole Maggen, a fellow addict who develops a relationship with Whip. I seem to remember some reviews mentioning how they felt the romance that features in Flight to be unnecessary and forced. And while I will concede that the film could probably have survived, perhaps even thrived, without it I do feel that it has a point that makes it worthwhile. In addition to the obvious angle of physical attraction, when they first meet Nicole is an absolute mess, in hospital following an overdose. And in her I think Whip perhaps sees the opportunity to be the strong one in the relationship; to make his problems appear lesser by comparison, and to be the hero. He protects her from her angry, potentially violent landlord, pays off her debt and gives her a place to live. As the film goes along however their roles are reversed and it reveals just how troubled Whip is. Nicole is able to turn her life around and make positive progress while Whip just continues on a drastically downward spiral.
Well I had a think about SC's comments about my reviews being too showy and with too much pomp. And I've decided....
to dedicate this review to Sexy Celebrity!!! This review of course is #201!!!! Which is just 1 review after my landmark 200th review!!!!
So everyone roll up, roll up and contribute your rep!!!! 
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Year of release
2012
2012
Directed by
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Written by
John Gatins
John Gatins
Starring
Denzel Washington
Kelly Reilly
Don Cheadle
Bruce Greenwood
John Goodman
Melissa Leo
Denzel Washington
Kelly Reilly
Don Cheadle
Bruce Greenwood
John Goodman
Melissa Leo
Flight
+
Plot - Captain Whip Whitaker (Washington) is a commuter airline pilot. During a flight from Orlando to Atlanta something goes terribly wrong and the plane begins to plummet to the ground. In an attempt to counter the problem Whip makes the apparently insane decision to invert the plane and fly it upside down. By doing so however he is able to save just about every person on board. When he wakes up in his hospital bed he sees that he is being hailed as a hero on TV, but at the same time a representative from the airline union is introducing him to a lawyer who explains that Whip may face criminal charges because blood tests have revealed that during the flight he was intoxicated with alcohol and cocaine. Whip strenuously denies that his abilities were impaired, claiming he was not at fault in the slightest. While the investigation is ongoing into the crash he is advised to stay completely clean and sober. However this proves a lot more difficult for Whip than he cares to admit.
Welcome back to the real world Robert Zemeckis! After having lost him to the world of motion capture for more than a decade, film audiences should rejoice at his return to live action. Zemeckis is a fine storyteller and in my eyes one of the most underrated directors working today. And while Flight may not prove to be as timelessly popular a movie as much of his other work (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump etc) it's still a very welcome return to the big screen for Zemeckis. Compared to many of his previous films it marks a bit of a shift being a much smaller, more dramatic and more personal film than just about any that he has previously delivered. His direction in Flight too is really quite understated (other than in one amazing sequence which we'll come on to later) but as such is quite commendable. In sports it's quite often said that a referee has done a good job if he isn't noticed, and it's rather a similar case here I feel. Such a project doesn't require flashy, 'look at me' direction; it requires a steady hand who knows how to tell the story and who is able to put his trust in the actors, who just allows them to perform.
And Zemeckis' trust proves to be justified by his impressive cast. This is of course especially true in the case of the film's lead, Denzel Washington. Portraying Captain William 'Whip' Whitaker it is Washington's best performance in a number of years, reflected by his first Academy Award nomination since 2001's Training Day. The film really is a character study of a man whose life is falling apart under the strains of addiction, and on these terms Washington ensures that the film succeeds with flying colours. His performance is terrifically powerful throughout with countless scenes and moments that could happily sit alongside his work in the likes of Philadelphia, Malcolm X, Hurricane, Glory etc as being amongst the best stuff he has ever done. Especially impressive scenes are those in the hospital following the crash where he excellently portrays how traumatised the character is, and any time where he succumbs to his addictive weakness and you just see the sheer amount of pain and torture written all over his face. Powerful stuff. His powerhouse showing also helps to make the ending more believable than would otherwise be the case. Flight's conclusion is rather big and Hollywood-ised, as if it's trying to give Denzel his 'Jimmy Stewart holding Congress in Mr Smith Goes to Washington moment'. The honesty that Denzel imbues the scene with however makes sure that we buy into it.
While it may be Washington who is in the spotlight the film features strong support throughout its ensemble, with Don Cheadle proving very impressive as Whip's lawyer. And a real highlight of the film is John Goodman. Even though he only appears on two occasions really, he makes such an impression that you would swear he had featured much more prominently. Goodman, one of the great actors around, plays Harling Mays; a friend of Whip and his drug dealer. In prison films there's always a character who can 'get you stuff.' And his character here is a lot like that, except on the outside. As well as supplying Whip with drugs, when he is in hospital Harling visits him and delivers unto him a stash of cigarettes, alcohol and porn magazines. Now that's a good friend! Goodman's inclusion adds a welcome dose of comic relief to the film.
Film Trivia Snippets - The spectacular crash sequence in the film was actually inspired by a real life disaster, though one that had a much more tragic conclusion; the crash of Alaksa Airlines flight 261. As in the film the plane suffered a catastrophic failure which caused the film to nose dive at a rate exceeding 13,300 feet per minute. Also like the film, the pilots rolled the airplane to an inverted position in an attempt to stabilise it. Sadly the outcome was not successful in real life however, with all 88 people on board perishing. /// The plane that crashes in the film is flight number 227. This plays into a superstition about planes crashing whose digits add up to 11. A number of spectacular airline crashes have been examples of this - American Airlines flight 191, Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 182, Delta Airlines flight 191, Flight 11 on September 11th etc. /// In order to get the film made within the studio's very modest, take-it-or-leave-it budget of $28m both Denzel Washington and Robert Zemeckis accepted massive pay cuts, taking just a tenth of their normal salaries.
Back at the time of its release, the one aspect of Flight that was mentioned in every review and provided the money shot for every trailer and TV spot was its plane crash. At the time there was also a story going around about how every airline would decline to show it during flights. My initial reaction was that it was a bit of a namby-pamby reaction spurred on by our heavily PC, health and safety obsessed society. Having now seen the film and the scene in question however, to even consider showing the film on planes for a single second would be madness. Its a bravura scene; a truly astonishing and terrifying experience that is vividly realistic. I didn't actually realise it at that time but during the sequence I had obviously found it so intense that I had been holding my breath, something I only became aware of at its conclusion when I let out a large breath. So even though I was sitting comfortably in my room, my feet resting on a table only a foot or two off the ground the scene managed to get to me. I can't imagine what it would have been like watching it onboard a plane with some 30,000 feet of nothingness between my feet and the ground below. Certainly one of the stand-out scenes of 2012.
If like Bonnie Tyler you're holding out for a hero, you've come to the wrong place. And I apologise for that dreadfully cheesy line! You'll struggle to find anyone with redeeming features amongst the film's ensemble. Although one of the issues throughout the film is whether Whip is a hero for saving all those lives, or whether he is the villain for causing the crash in the first place. While the film does resolve that question it still leaves it rather in the balance as to how you see him, leaving it up to the viewer to question and decide whether they see Whip as a hero or not. A man who has been self-medicating on alcohol and drugs for a long time, the film doesn't shy away from showing him in a very negative light. He is a real loose cannon who does some despicable things such as the moment he manipulates a member of the cabin crew into covering for him by invoking what it would be like if she had died and it was her son at the funeral. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, he does this at a funeral!!! 
And yet at the same time he does save 96 lives which would otherwise have perished where it not for his actions, as is highlighted by the fact that the airline had ten pilots attempt the same move in a simulation and on every occasion they failed. At least he has the excuse of sorts of being an addict, but alongside the obviously damaged Whip you also have some really horrible characters who are always attempting to cover their own ass, most notably Don Cheadle's scumbag lawyer who manipulates everything and everyone he can to get the desired result.
You'll struggle to find anyone with redeeming features amongst the film's ensemble. Although one of the issues throughout the film is whether Whip is a hero for saving all those lives, or whether he is the villain for causing the crash in the first place. While the film does resolve that question it still leaves it rather in the balance as to how you see him, leaving it up to the viewer to question and decide whether they see Whip as a hero or not. A man who has been self-medicating on alcohol and drugs for a long time, the film doesn't shy away from showing him in a very negative light. He is a real loose cannon who does some despicable things such as the moment he manipulates a member of the cabin crew into covering for him by invoking what it would be like if she had died and it was her son at the funeral. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, he does this at a funeral!!! And yet at the same time he does save 96 lives which would otherwise have perished where it not for his actions, as is highlighted by the fact that the airline had ten pilots attempt the same move in a simulation and on every occasion they failed. At least he has the excuse of sorts of being an addict, but alongside the obviously damaged Whip you also have some really horrible characters who are always attempting to cover their own ass, most notably Don Cheadle's scumbag lawyer who manipulates everything and everyone he can to get the desired result. The film does have the odd fault. The most notable of which is perhaps a slightly overlong running time. To cut it down I think they could have trimmed some of Whip's relapses. Numerous times throughout the film he seems to be fine and then self-destructs. While it may be an accurate depiction of the lives of an addict it may not be ideal for a piece of film. Oh and just as a little aside, while it's a thread that is dropped as the film enters its final act, Flight does also feature an interesting theme about religion, faith and destiny. When Whip and Nicole meet there is talk of it being fate that brought the two together in that spot, and then following the plane crash there seems to be just as many people praising God for saving all those lives as Whip himself. It's something that's always irritated me; following a tragedy or accident or whatever when someone survives they tend to thank God for it, not the EMTs, nurses, doctors etc who trained for years to gain the expertise required to save them. It also irritates me that it's ok to praise God for saving people in a tragedy, but to not blame God for the tragedy in the first place and all the people who did die. And while it's not uttered during Flight is there a more annoying phrase in all of humanity than “God works in mysterious ways” to explain it all away?
Conclusion - Flight is a film that soars on the back of an exceptional performance from Denzel Washington. While he may not have earned an Oscar for his performance, he certainly earned his wings. Perhaps the film does have the occasional tendency to go into auto pilot mode, and in terms of its runtime it could maybe have done with losing a little luggage. So it may not be all plane sailing but a fine cabin crew of actors ensure that it makes it through any turbulence without stalling or any potential crash landing. And with Zemeckis at the controls piloting the film admirably right from take off all the way through to its destination, this is a grounded piece of work which is able to fly high during its tremendous crash landing sequence. It's a journey that is well worth being a passenger for. And yes I'm pretty sure I just set a new record for puns featured in a conclusion!