In a month where we watched Lance Armstrong not-really-explain and not-really-apologise, Flight couldn’t be more timely. Robert Zemeckis’ film is about addiction and substance abuse – but more than that, it’s about our need to see people redeem themselves, for public apologies and epiphanies.
More than anything, though, Flight is about our unquenchable thirst for heroes.
Denzel Washington plays alcoholic pilot Whip Whitaker, who chooses the wrong day to fly while jacked up on coke and booze. In a plane sequence even more frightening than that in Zemeckis’ Cast Away, a technical malfunction sends the plane plummeting towards the ground. Through some unbelievable manoeuvres, Whip manages to land the plane, saving 96 lives and losing six. Though his skill was unquestionable, investigators are bearing down. Before long, America’s new sweetheart is put under intense scrutiny, as the threat of both relapse and a life sentence loom.
Known for playing the flawed hero with the winning smile – or the bad-ass villain with a similar grin – Washington has rarely given a performance as nuanced and complex as this. Whip is stuck in a spiral of denial and self-destruction. However there’s a tragic humanity to his failings. Washington’s double-edged performance beautifully plays on the moral ambiguity of the film, as the audience grapples with whether he can really be forgiven if he goes unpunished.
It’s this complexity that elevates Flight from an otherwise bog-standard substance abuse drama, and Don Cheadle’s role as the conflicted devil’s advocate lawyer trying to defend Whip adds another interesting layer.
Kelly Reilly is stunning as a heroin-addicted love interest, who ironically becomes a healthy foil to Whip. However their intriguing relationship is infuriatingly abandoned in favour of by-the-book courtroom dramatics. Grrrr...