Flightplan - 2005

Touchstone Films, Imagine Entertainment

Directed by Robert Schwentke

Cast:

• Kyle Pratt – Jodie Foster
• Air Marshal Gene Carson – Peter Sarsgaard
• Captain Marcus Rich – Sean Bean
• Stephanie – Kate Beahan
• Obaid – Michael Irby
• Ahmed – Asaaf Cohen
• Fiona – Erika Christensen
• Therapist – Greta Scacchi

Story: A widow and her daughter are returning to the United States with the body of her husband after a tragic accident. They are aboard the most advanced and largest passenger jet in the world, the A474, a plane the widow knows intimately, since she was on the design team, as was her husband. When they are airborne, the widow and her daughter decide to stretch out on two unoccupied rows in the back of the plane. When the widow awakes, the daughter is missing, and when she tries to locate her, no one has seen the girl. As the widow begins to panic, communications from Berlin tell the Captain there is no record of the little girl boarding the plane, and later that the little girl died along with her husband in the accident. An air marshal is told to restrain the widow to her seat, and a therapist who was on board comes to talk with her, almost convincing her the little girl was not with her, until she shes on the window the heart the little girl had drawn with her finger in the condensation.

Review: If the film stars Jodie Foster, I'm there. I've never seen a bad film with her in it, nor do I ever expect to. I put her in the same category as De Niro, Pacino, and Hopkins, people who know their craft so well they will always deliver a stellar performance. And this film is no exception. The suspense builds slowly, little clues are given, and the characters are all developed in a logical and believable fashion. Sean Bean portrays the perfect, modern day airline captain, a man skilled in customer relations and interaction as well as the mechanics of flight. Greta Scacchi, whose role is brief, is an excellent addition who adds a dimension of compassion and concern to a very tragic situation. Sarsgaard, with his pleasant, professional demeanor, plays an excellent foil to Foster, and their interactions are the bulk of the plot. Definitely a film for the collection, filed next to Rear Window or the Secret Garden. PG-13 is appropriate and correct for the film.