Flightplan

Stars : Jodie Foster, Sean Bean, Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Gretta Schacci

Directed By: Robert Schwentke
Released by: Touchstone Pictures

Its has been three years since Jodie Foster last graced the silver screen, in the immensely popular Panic Room. Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder, as,watching Foster's performance in Flightplan, you can't help but wish you got to see her in action more often. The dual Oscar winner is once again at her best in this pacy mid-air thriller. One of the most popular films in the US for months, it's not hard to see why Flightplan largely carried the October box office by itself. It has all the key ingredients for a film of its type, suspense, plot twists, convincing performances and a crackerjack pace. Although not an out and out classic, it's still a very entertaining, oftentimes turbulent, ride.

Foster plays Kyle Pratt, an aeronautical engineer travelling back to New York from Berlin, where she was based with her late husband, who died a week earlier and whose body she is transporting back to the United States. Travelling with Pratt is her 6 year old daughter, Julia, who is nervous in public and still coming to terms with her father's death. Having boarded a busy flight back to the States, on a plane Pratt helped design, mother and daughter snuggle down for a nap. Only one of them wakes up in the same place. Three hours after take off, Kyle awakes to find that Julia is missing. Hysterical and frightened,and taking medication for anxiety following her husband's death, Kyle frantically searches the ailes of the plane, and when that search proves futile, she demands that the plane's captain (Sean Bean), order his crew to search the plane from top to bottom, in order to find her daughter. The problem is, there is no record of Julia having ever been on the plane. At all. No one saw her, there is no boarding pass, only the conviction of a bereaved woman. What follows is an examination of a plethora of issues ranging from the behaviour of cabin crew to the war on terror. It is here that any plot summary has to stop, as the movie relies on plot turns and unexpected surprises, and the whole film could be ruined with just a few sentences.

Many have said that Jodie Foster is almost copyrighting the "mother in crisis" role, given that this movie does have striking similarities to Panic Room. Yet whatever the case, she is once again outstanding as a mother desperately trying to find the one thing she has left in her life. Director Robert Schwentke really allows the audience to get inside Kyle's head, you feel her frustration, her anger, her fear, and clever perspective filming allows the audience to race down the aisles as Kyles sees them. Sean Bean is also worthy of mention, providing the enigmatic, nameless "Captain", of the plane. He brings a suave touch to a frantic pace, and could pass for a real life airline pilot anyday of the week. Peter Sarsgaard is also a major player in the film, often providing the voice of reason to Pratt's hysteria, in an impressive performance.

Flightplan will not disappoint, it drags you onboard and fastens your seatbelt on a two hour flight that always provides something to maintain your interest. It could have perhaps been a little longer, with the ending feeling slightly rushed and simplistic, but overall its is well paced. Schwentke builds up the tension with deft touch, and the claustrophobic environment of the plane soon crosses over to the cinema, it's the sort of movie that makes you shift in your seat with tension. Whilst it won't make your next flying experience any easier, it will entertain, and engage, which is what a good thriller is all about. Although it may still officially be spring in Australia, with sunny skies outside, the temperature rapidly rising, and more big names to come, you start to get the feeling that the first of the summer blockbusters has landed. Despite what else the season may bring, it has undeniably opened impressively.


out of ten

Reviewed by Nick Bailey

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