Flightplan starts in Berlin in Germany as grieving widow Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) & her young six year old daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) board a flight to New York, together with her dead husband in the cargo hold who they intend to bury back in the US the plane takes off for it's long journey to New York. Kyle & Julia both fall asleep, when Kyle wakes up Julia has gone. At first Kyle thinks Julia is wandering around somewhere but after checking the plane Kyle can see no sign of her daughter. Becoming increasing worried about her missing daughter Julia demands that the plane is searched, Captain Rich (Sean bean) is unsure what to think as no-one remembers even seeing Julia & she is no present on the passenger manifesto either. With no record of Julia ever having boarded the plane Kyle's accusations are not taken seriously but she know's that Julia is somewhere on the plane & Kyle is going to find her...
Directed by Robert Schwentke one has to say that for two thirds of it's duration Flightplan is a neat little mystery thriller in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Lady Vanishes (1933) although here instead of an old woman disappearing on a train a young girl goes missing on a plane, unfortunately the final third is a bit of a mess that really stretches credibility. While the first two thirds are nicely done with a gradual build-up of suspense & tension revolving around the mysterious disappearance of a young girl the explanation offered during the final third is just daft & full of plot holes. It seem like after a slow yet interesting first two thirds of Flightplan the makers decided they needed to up the action & pace & turned it into an action thriller with fights, shooting, explosions & the expected face-off between the heroine & villain. Some of the plot holes are gaping & too big to ignore like the idea that an airline would pay a huge ransom to a terrorist they have never even spoken to, how does the villain expect to get the money anyway? What proof doe they have it was ever really deposited in the bank account? The idea that a woman can get on a plane with a young girl & no-one notices the girl is absurd, the kidnapping & hiding of the girl again without anyone seeing anything is hard to believe & the villains plan was over complicated anyway relying on many coincidences, luck & pure chance to succeed as how did they manage to get themselves on the same flight as Kyle? How did they know for certain Kyle would go crazy & actually open the coffin? How were they going to make sure they were there when Kyle did open the coffin? Kidnapping a young girl in a plane cabin full of passengers is risky to say the least, what if Kyle hadn't gone to sleep or if Julia had woken up & screamed? At 90 odd minutes it moves along at a decent pace & while it does get very silly at the end the first two thirds are really quite good. The character's are thin, no-one is given any sort of background & even Kyle is very shallow as a character while her daughter barely gets two lines. There's also a quick stab at reversing expectations as the blatantly suspicious looking Arab guy's prove to be good blokes while the so-called all American hero protector on the flight turns out to be slime.
The film is pretty stylish as it goes with nice clean bright cinematography, there's no shaking camera here or quick machine gun editing. The film mixes suspense & tension & all out action with mixed results, the build-up is good & intriguing while the pay-off is loud, noisy & has zero credibility. The CGI computer effects are alright, they can't even film a proper plane taking off now it has to be a CGI computer effect. Not much violence until the last third & only one person dies in the whole thing anyway. It's just a pity that the script couldn't come up with a more plausible explanation for the first two thirds of the Flightplan which are suspenseful, it's like every time one idea is used to cover a plot hole or explain something it raises more questions & plot holes.
With a supposed budget of about $55,000,000 this had a lot of money spent on it, personally I think the same years Red Eye (2005) is much better overall as a woman finds herself kidnapped & blackmailed on a plane. The acting is OK, Jodie Foster is alright but doesn't bring much to Kyle, Sean Bean is wasted while Peter Sarsgaard is pretty good.
Flightplan is a film that I liked , sure the first two thirds are so much better than then eventual explanations & far fetched Hollywood thriller reasonings but overall I liked it. Not a great film by any means but a good one none the less if you can accept a few lapses in logic at the end.
Directed by Robert Schwentke one has to say that for two thirds of it's duration Flightplan is a neat little mystery thriller in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Lady Vanishes (1933) although here instead of an old woman disappearing on a train a young girl goes missing on a plane, unfortunately the final third is a bit of a mess that really stretches credibility. While the first two thirds are nicely done with a gradual build-up of suspense & tension revolving around the mysterious disappearance of a young girl the explanation offered during the final third is just daft & full of plot holes. It seem like after a slow yet interesting first two thirds of Flightplan the makers decided they needed to up the action & pace & turned it into an action thriller with fights, shooting, explosions & the expected face-off between the heroine & villain. Some of the plot holes are gaping & too big to ignore like the idea that an airline would pay a huge ransom to a terrorist they have never even spoken to, how does the villain expect to get the money anyway? What proof doe they have it was ever really deposited in the bank account? The idea that a woman can get on a plane with a young girl & no-one notices the girl is absurd, the kidnapping & hiding of the girl again without anyone seeing anything is hard to believe & the villains plan was over complicated anyway relying on many coincidences, luck & pure chance to succeed as how did they manage to get themselves on the same flight as Kyle? How did they know for certain Kyle would go crazy & actually open the coffin? How were they going to make sure they were there when Kyle did open the coffin? Kidnapping a young girl in a plane cabin full of passengers is risky to say the least, what if Kyle hadn't gone to sleep or if Julia had woken up & screamed? At 90 odd minutes it moves along at a decent pace & while it does get very silly at the end the first two thirds are really quite good. The character's are thin, no-one is given any sort of background & even Kyle is very shallow as a character while her daughter barely gets two lines. There's also a quick stab at reversing expectations as the blatantly suspicious looking Arab guy's prove to be good blokes while the so-called all American hero protector on the flight turns out to be slime.
The film is pretty stylish as it goes with nice clean bright cinematography, there's no shaking camera here or quick machine gun editing. The film mixes suspense & tension & all out action with mixed results, the build-up is good & intriguing while the pay-off is loud, noisy & has zero credibility. The CGI computer effects are alright, they can't even film a proper plane taking off now it has to be a CGI computer effect. Not much violence until the last third & only one person dies in the whole thing anyway. It's just a pity that the script couldn't come up with a more plausible explanation for the first two thirds of the Flightplan which are suspenseful, it's like every time one idea is used to cover a plot hole or explain something it raises more questions & plot holes.
With a supposed budget of about $55,000,000 this had a lot of money spent on it, personally I think the same years Red Eye (2005) is much better overall as a woman finds herself kidnapped & blackmailed on a plane. The acting is OK, Jodie Foster is alright but doesn't bring much to Kyle, Sean Bean is wasted while Peter Sarsgaard is pretty good.
Flightplan is a film that I liked , sure the first two thirds are so much better than then eventual explanations & far fetched Hollywood thriller reasonings but overall I liked it. Not a great film by any means but a good one none the less if you can accept a few lapses in logic at the end.