(The best flying advice? Lock up your daughters, folks...)
CAST: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan, Greta Scacchi, Marlene Lawson, Judith Scott.
DIRECTOR: Robert Schwentke
WARNING: SPOILERS and economy-class nightmares right ahead…
If there’s anything that’s flawless about FLIGHT PLAN, it’s Jodie Foster. From the moment we first lay eyes on her as propulsion engineer Kyle Pratt, we know that no matter how FLIGHT PLAN turns out she’s going to at least give you a compelling performance. We first find Kyle sitting alone on a Berlin subway platform, looking like someone just told her she won the lottery - only she just remembered that she accidentally flushed the ticket down the crapper. Turns out she looks shell-shocked because her beloved husband recently fell to his death from the roof of their building. Only we don’t find this out for sure until about five minutes into the movie - after we’ve seen him approach her on the subway platform and lead her by the hand back to their apartment. Turns out this evening stroll with her hubby was a figment of her imagination. She was actually alone. This is our first sign that Kyle may not exactly be the international poster girl for sound mental health.
Kyle and her equally traumatized 6-year old daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawson) are escorting Mr. Pratt’s body back to the States. Just so happens the aircraft they’re taking is the newest, biggest one in the world - which Kyle helped design. And which Kyle promises Julia will be like one big playground. Yeah… Devil’s Playground, maybe. Anyhow, the flight is your usual mixed bag of (1) smokin’ hot flight attendants (Kate Beahan, Erika Christensen), (2) grumbling and annoying passengers (Peter Sarsgaard), and (3) sizzlin’ hot captain (Sean Bean). The flight starts out like you’re usual transatlantic seven-hour Chinese water torture marathon. Not long into the flight, though, Kyle notices some empty rows in the back and suggests to Julia that they each get their own and stretch out. Obviously too young to realize that finding an entire empty row on a packed flight is like finding Atlantis, Julia replies, “Can we do that?” After pretty much telling the kid to get a fucking move on before someone else nabs the seats, Kyle curls up into a ball and drifts off into a peaceful slumber - obviously dreaming of her single days before such pains-in-the-ass like husbands and children pretty much shut her down for business.
When Kyle awakens, she finds that Julia is missing. At first she writes it off as yet another one of the little brat’s fun and games. Except said brat never shows up, prompting Kyle to (1) harass the crew into searching the entire plane, (2) tap-dance on Captain Sizzlin’ Hot’s last nerve, and (3) point-blank accuse a few Arab-Americans of being terrorist in a scene so unintentionally funny in its political-incorrectness, it will leave you breathless. At least, I hope its unintentionally funny, otherwise that’s just so fucked up. Anyhow, Julia remains missing - which sends Kyle into even more of a tailspin. She basically ends up sneaking into the electronics hold of the aircraft, where - using her Yoda-like knowledge of the plane - she plays “Simon Says” with the electronic lights and wires. Leading to (1) all the lights going out, (2) the oxygen masks deploying, and (3) about 70% of the passengers shitting themselves. Before Kyle can do any more damage Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard), the flight’s air marshal, apprehends her and takes her back to the cabins topside, where the glares of the angry passengers are almost as pungent as the stench of the crap in their pants.
Kyle makes one last plea to Carson to believe her story that Julia is really onboard, and not dead or a figment of her imagination, like they’ve been telling her. I mean, just because she imagined walking in Berlin with her dead husband, doesn’t necessarily mean she imagined bringing Julia onboard. Right? Oh, who the fuck am I kidding. Of course it does! She sounds about as stable as a skyscraper with a mud foundation. But, surprisingly, Gene agrees to plead her case with Captain Sizzlin’ Hot one last time. If you’re wondering why Gene - who has pretty much behaved like a colossal dickhead to Kyle even before she started exhibiting symptoms of Crazy Terrorist Bitch Syndrome - is suddenly so accommodating towards her, well, let’s just say he has an agenda. And it’s revealed when he tells Captain S.H. that (1) Kyle is a terrorist who fabricated the missing daughter story and wants (2) $50 million wired to an off-shore account when they make an unscheduled land in the garden spot of Goose Bay, New Foundland, (3) wants the crew and passengers to de-board, (4) and demands a G3 chopper fueled to capacity, with (5) Godiva chocolates and Crystal Light lemonade stocked inside. Okay, I made up that last part.
Of course, Kyle has no idea that Gene-the-Prick has been making absurd demands on her behalf. So it’s no surprise that when the plane lands in Goose Bay (oh, that name. THAT NAME!) and Kyle tells Captain S.H. yet again that her daughter is missing, our fine (in more ways than one) pilot basically rolls his eyes and tells her to talk to the hand. Quickly figuring out that Gene has thrown her under the landing gear, and has been feeding the authorities an almost admirable load of bullshit, Kyle confronts him after the plane has been emptied out. By "confront him", I mean she: (1) smashes his face in with a fire extinguisher, (2) cuffs him to the door handle, (3) gropes him vigorously (yeah!), and (4) steals the detonator to the bombs stashed down in avaionics - where Kyle suspects Julia is being held. Sure enough, Kyle finds her curled up into a little ball, sleeping peacefully as if this kind of shit happens to her everyday. Before mother and daughter can have much of any kind of celebration, our favorite prick Gene makes a reappearance and tries to do them in. Unfortunately, he must not have gotten the memo that this is a Jodie Foster movie - and he’s not Jodie Foster, but rather someone trying to kill Jodie Foster’s character. Which means he’s dead meat. As in, trapped-in-the-nose-cone-of-the-plane-as-it-explodes kind of dead meat.
The movie ends with Jodie, er, Kyle triumphantly walking away from the smoking wreckage of the plane - carrying Julia who, by this time, has become something of an urban legend to the other passengers. Your cue to run screaming with laughter our of the theater is when one of the very same disbelieving assholes actually says in a teary voice, “She never gave up.” Well, at least she was consistent. Which is more than can be said for disbelieving assholes who conveniently change their minds at the whim of the script. Meow.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: For approximately the first two-thirds of FLIGHT PLAN, everything is nearly perfect. We’ve met our intriguing heroine, walked in her shoes as she navigates the grim scenario she finds herself in, and then watch as things get increasingly worse for her in the most unexpected of ways - in the least likely of places. Jodie Foster makes this film with her riveting performance of a woman whose mental, emotional, and - yes - physical strengths are severely tested. Sean Bean is gallant and likable as the conflicted captain who clearly is instinctively protective of Kyle - but also must weigh this with his duties to the other passengers of the plane. Peter Sarsgaard is perfectly slimy and hissable as the surprise bad guy - except with Peter Sarsgaard, being revealed as less than honorable doesn’t always seem to be a surprise. Kate Beahan, Erika Christensen, and Judith Scott are all competent as the various flight attendants on the flight. But the most important support comes from Marlene Lawson, the lovely young actress that plays Kyle’s daughter. She plays Julia with a naturalness that isn’t forced and is refreshing for its lack of cleverness. In other words, she succeeds in playing a normal kid.
Unfortunately, all the good ground covered by the film falters when the plot behind Julia’s disappearance is revealed. In essence, the writers and director basically set up such a fantastic promise that they ultimately couldn’t deliver on. Gene’s plot is so dependent on random coincidence and Kyle doing exactly the right (or, I suppose, wrong) things that you have to wonder if it's Gene who is Yoda, and not Kyle. And I seriously doubt the authorities would wire $50 million that easy and quickly. And while the climax with Kyle and Gene playing cat and mouse through the abandoned plane is tense and exciting, it's a step down from all the exciting psychological slow burn suspense that preceded it.
In short, FLIGHT PLAN is an admirable attempt to create an intelligent and deliberately paced thriller centered around a complex and strong woman. It’s just too bad that the writers felt they had to turn her into James Bond at the end to jazz things up. If they’d managed to create a third act that followed through on the promise of the first two, this film would be right up there with THE LADY VANISHES and THE VANISHING (original, not the crappy remake) in quality. Instead, its merely above average - and mostly due to the brilliant Jodie Foster. She elevates the film - and deserves a better ending. Without her, this movie would be merely average.
