Flightplan
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: C+ Film: C+
Jodie Foster does not make as many films as she used to,
but when she comes back, so do the audiences.
One of the only full fledged big screen movie stars around, Robert
Schwentke’s Flightplan (2005) does go more than a bit out of its way to
be David Fincher’s Panic Room (2002) in an airplane. It is nowhere as good, but thanks to the
production design and Foster’s intense performance, it was one of the season’s
big hits and will easily repeat that business on DVD.
Foster is a professional airplane designer responsible for
the fancy, ultra technical, ultra modern and ultra luxurious Aalto E-474
mega-jet. Ready to celebrate, her
husband suddenly turns up dead, likely from a suicide more than an
accident. Her and her daughter go on
the plane. Suddenly, the daughter
disappears, no one has seen her, no one remembers her, she was not in the
records with her mother and Kyle Pratt (Foster) starts to question her
sanity. Who were those Middle Eastern
men looking through her window at home?
Are the medications she is using for her mourning affecting her brain
and memory that much? How could a
little girl suddenly disappear without a trace?
This is a nice set up and Foster is perfect for the role. The problem is that the film is choppy in
the later sequences, where it is obvious it was test marketed to death, then
political correctness is thrown in at the end that additionally contradicts the
set up and earlier scenes in the film.
Without giving anything away, the mystery that is laid out is betrayed
by the last half hour and the film looses all altitude after flying high early
on. Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen
and Sean Bean are among the good supporting cast that also includes some good character
actor unknowns. However, foster is so
good and the film so loose in its plot, that Foster out-acts and mows down all
other performances and script flaws in her wake. She is not one of the biggest stars in the world for
nothing. You have to see the film once
to believe it and even when the film itself disappoints, she does not. Too bad Flightplan is more a one-way
ticket than a round trip tour.
The 2.35 X 1 image was shot in Super 35 and then rendered
darker via a digital intermediate in another attempt to make it like Panic
Room, but it does not hold its form as much, no matter how compelling the
design of the plane is. Even in the
theater, some of the shots looked like they were shot in digital HD as a
result, though cinematographer Florian Ballhaus at least goes for a big screen
look for the most part. The sound is
here in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 mixes, but the DTS is much fuller and one of
the best sound DVDs of a new film we have heard lately over films like Fantastic
Four, also issued with a DTS option.
James Horner’s score is a plus that saved the film in some spots. Extras include a feature length audio
commentary by the director, featurette on the film, featurette on the making of
the plane in the film and a couple of previews for other Disney releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
