FLIGHT (B-)

Bottom Line: Denzel Washington, as a degenerate, egotistical, hot shot pilot, rises above the somber material in this good-but-not-great moral examination of alcoholism, denial and acceptance.  FLIGHT is a movie that sometimes clumsily walks the cinematic tightrope between melodramatic mediocrity and compelling drama.  A few of themes are trivialized by the flat out generic attention they’re afforded, the sad-sack and to-on-point music score is all but dumped in our ears and it’ll occasionally feel like you’re watching a Lifetime Movie of the Week for Men – just filmed with a well respected director, actors who can act and more expensive equipment.  Other times, well you’ll be watching an A-list of filmmakers doing best what they’re paid to do…I wish that part happened more often here.  It’s an engrossing if not familiar story that should be (not must be) seen if for no other reason than to answer the inevitable bar room trivia question: ‘For what film did Denzel Washington receive his sixth Academy Award nomination?’

Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, Kelly Reilly and John Goodman
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis (CASTAWAY, WHAT LIES BENEATH, FORREST GUMP and BACK TO THE FUTURE)
Rated: R
Running time: 138 minutes
Story: Flight tells the redemption story of Whip, a commercial airline pilot who pulls off a heroic feat of flying in a damaged plane, saving 98 lives on a flight carrying 106 people. While the world begs to embrace him as a true American Hero, the everyman struggles with this label as he is forced to hold up to the scrutiny of an investigation that brings into question his behavior the night before the doomed flight. (Paramount Pictures)

Trailer: www.paramount.com/flight