Following the suicide of her husband, American jet propulsion engineer Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) board a massive jetliner in Germany (where they have been living), heading home to New York to start a new life. Waking up from a brief nap early in the flight, Kyle is perturbed to discover Julia is nowhere to be found.
Her perturbation turns to concern when a superficial search of the plane proves fruitless, and her concern turns to outright panic when no one on the plane can admit to ever having seen Julia on board. Did Julia really die weeks earlier as some suggest? Or is there a larger conspiracy at work?
Trailers for Flightplan pointed to a slickly produced Hollywood thriller centred around a typically determined performance from double Oscar-winner Foster. The general audience reaction to the marketing was that it very much appeared to be "Panic Room in the sky". If only.
Despite looking handsome and professionally produced, Flightplan unfortunately collapses under the weight of its poorly thought-out plot, which becomes increasingly littered with distracting holes and ridiculous contrivances.
The initial plot machinations of the film play out well, and you'll settle in for what should've been an escalating tense ride, but the rest of the film struggles to sustain the set up. While you probably won't be bored, you'll most likely leave the theatre irritated.
Many thrillers are founded upon unrealistic conceits, and such notions alone won't necessarily derail a film, but when they are presented with such po-faced audacity, with no regard for genuine dramatic licence, it's hard to go along with them.
The cast is not at fault. Foster does a decent job of taking the audience as far as she can; Saarsgard (Shattered Glass; The Skeleton Key) is an interesting presence as always, and Sean Bean (Boromir in LOTR) is suitably commanding as the initially sympathetic captain.
Also worth paying attention to is Australian actress Kate Beahan, who has a small role as a flight attendant. Beahan recently filmed the Britt Eckland role in Neil LaBute's upcoming remake of The Wicker Man starring Nicholas Cage. Her piercing eyes and mysterious beauty bode well for the remake.
Flightplan is directed with care and attention by German filmmaker Robert Schwenke, who clearly has a good eye, and populates the film with soothing blues and soft lighting. But he is let down by the script, which flails about like a balloon losing air in the third act.
Flightplan by all rights should've been an undemanding and entertaining thriller, and while it technically hits all the thriller notes, and is helped along by good production design, it can't help but reek of unfulfilled potential.
You could do worse for a night out at the movies, but you could easily do a whole lot better.
Not really recommended.
Dominic Corry
