In the flashy Flightplan,
Foster plays an aerial engineer whose escorting the body of her dead
husband back home to America from Berlin. With daughter in tow, the
distraught wife and mother needs nothing more than a good rest –
but sadly, she won’t get it on this flight. After a few
hours of shuteye, Kyle (Foster) awakes to discover that her daughter is
gone. Not only have the passengers and crew not seen the kid –
they’re certain she never existed. Even the passenger-list
doesn’t have a record of the girl. With a mysterious Air
marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) assisting her, Kyle tears through everything
on the plane – looking for the daughter she’s certain
exists. The rather middling thriller signals some desperate times
for the two-time Academy Award Winning megastar. Though Foster is as
good as ever here – and the movie plays so much better because
she is in it – it’s as if she’s mistakenly hopped on
the wrong flight. This trek, it would seem, would be more in a B-stars
route, not one of Tinseltown’s finest. The main problem
with the film is the script. It’s a great idea, but it’s
just not executed successfully enough. The twist is given away way too
early – they should’ve stretched it out until the last few
minutes – and even though, it seems a bit of a cheap pay-off for
such a slow-boiling build-up. Mostly though, the film’s story
could easily be compacted into a college filmmaker’s 60-minute
short film – there really isn’t that much here. On
the other hand, Foster is always great, and she keeps this one
elevated. We really do feel for her plight – a thousand shades of
emotion on her face at all times – and that ultimately hooks us
in for the duration. In another actor’s hands, we
mightn’t be as critical, but with Foster headlining –
someone we know is capable of so much more – one can’t help
but pick holes. It would seem, in this case, that someone else has
booked her flight. EXTRAS
The DVD includes an interesting, but not overly insightful, multi-part
making-of, plus a commentary and a piece on how they constructed the
mock double-decker aircraft.
Conclusion:
Movie 65% Extras: 50%
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