“FLIGHTPLAN” IS JODIE FOSTER’S AIRBORNE PANIC ROOM

You would think after her role in 2002’s “Panic Room” Jodie Foster would do something totally different. Not the case. “Flight Plan”, the second nightmare in the sky, suspense filled thriller to be released in a two-month period (Red Eye, which has many similarities, and stars Rachel McAdams came first with a much tighter, well written script) puts Jodie Foster in the same protective mother mode, both emotionally and physically as her last film. There is no doubt to Jodie’s powerful strength as an actress and she again pulls off another demanding role with aplomb. Now, if only the script would keep the momentum it starts off with till the end and not run into problems halfway through, I’d recommend it more highly.

The Flick Chicks, film, video, movie reviews, critics, Judy Thorburn, Victoria Alexander, Polly Peluso, Shannon Onstot, Jacqueline Monahan, Tasha Chemplavil, Flight Plan, Flightplan, Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Robert Schwentke, airline, thriller

The set up, from a mother’s point of view could not be worse. It starts off with Jodie Foster as Kyle Pratt, recently widowed due to the unexpected death of her husband. Still grieving, with her bags packed and six year old daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston, in her film debut) by her side, Kyle leaves Berlin to catch a flight back home to Long Island along with her husband’s casket.

Mother and daughter are comfortably seated next to each other in the new state of the art airplane that Kyle, as a propulsion engineer, helped to design, when three hours into the flight the nightmare begins. After falling asleep, Kyle awakens only to discover that Julia is missing and nowhere to be found. The flight attendants and passengers claim no memory of having seen Julia or, Kyle is informed, is their any record of Julia’s departure at the gate or evidence of her being on board. That’s enough to make any loving parent freak out. As such, a disbelieving, frenzied Kyle, thinking Julia might be in danger, demands that every inch of the airliner be searched to find her daughter who, to begin with, was so scared of going on a plane. Also on board, as would be expected post 9/11, is an Air Marshal, this one being Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) who becomes suspicious of Kyle’s mental state, seeing her actions as a potential threat to the welfare of the passengers and the entire plane. Since everyone including the Captain (Sean Bean) refuses to believe that Julia was on board and has now vanished, Kyle is pushed to the limit. Questions arise whether this situation is the imaginary result of a woman overcome with grief or if there is a sinister reason behind Julia vanishing without a trace. In other words, is she crazy or the victim of some ingenious flight plan? What do you think? On the brink of losing her mind, a distraught Kyle is determined to go to any length to find out the truth and get to the bottom of this horrifying dilemma.

From the moment Julia appears to have disappeared there is a sufficient amount of nail biting suspense as Kyle becomes more agitated and frustrated to the point of making accusations and taking it upon herself to break away and search the inner recesses of the plane that she knows well. Unfortunately, the steady build up of tension takes a dive once the truth is revealed and predictability takes over.

Flight Plan turns into another woman in jeopardy scenario with Foster taking the reigns of kick butt action heroine. That’s okay if only the plot would entail some believability factor. However, too many implausible plot devices are brought up. For, one it begs the question: how could not even one person have noticed Julia at any time before she disappeared into thin air. And, if she was indeed kidnapped, are we to believe it occurred without even a peep from the little girl, a stir from her mother, or without anyone in the crowded plane seeing it happen? How absurd!

In addition, our fear of Middle Eastern terrorists is exploited by conveniently employing a few Arab passengers who may or may not be part of a conspiracy. Without mentioning a spoiler, let me say the plot relies upon more than a few preposterous assumptions, and therefore loses credibility.

I can’t blame any of the actors who are all up to speed, nor the great production design. Fault lies strictly in the ill constructed script. With that much turbulence in the storyline, I am forced to report the film nearly crashes way before the anti-climatic ending. That’s too bad, because the take off was so thrilling.