| Overall Grade: |
B- |
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| Story: |
C |
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| Acting: |
A- |
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| Direction: |
C |
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| Visuals: |
B- |
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foster is great; direction is weak
by Corvin Rok (movies profile)
Aug 8, 2006
15
of
18 people found this review helpful
Flightplan had a nice little idea going for it. But the direction and script are essentially flawed. The reason the movie survives the "see-ability" test is because of the intense acting ability of Jodie Foster. Her presence and focus on the believability of her character holds it all together. This film is a C rate film without her, but makes a B minus grade just from the pull of her performance.
Flightplan is basically about a woman who is going through amazing traumatic stress, who thinks she has had her daughter stolen from her on a airliner, during the flight. The story hinges around the fact that Foster's character goes in an out of hallucinations, in an attempt to deal with the recent death of her husband, who's body she is returning (on that same plane, in the cargo) to the US to be buried. Because of this, and a clever idea in the plot, you don't know whether the daughter is actually on the plane, and kidnapped, or whether Foster's character has simply hallucinated the daughter's presence on the plane as well. The story is much more compelling that it would seem, but as you watch the movie unfold, the plot has lots of holes in it.
There are the obvious problems with realistically trying to determine who each step of the events could ever happen to set up the movie in the place it tries to take you (the daughter not being seen by others, someone taking her on a airliner, during flight, etc). There are plenty of theories thrown around for each item, but ultimately when you get the answers as the movie wraps up, you don't really feel like the story was very "waterproof". There is also the issue of the final scene where the hero survives a cataclysmic explosion. Again, they try to explain it away, but it doesn't satisfy the viewer with reason.
Still, the compelling psychodrama led by Foster is enough to keep you thinking someone must be crazy, even if it isn't her. Ultimately, this is enough for this film to make the big screen and it will be enough for it to have a good run as a DVD rental.
It just would have been nice if the directing and screenwriting were as strong as the acting for the star. |
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