Flight: With Movies Like These It's A Wonder Why Anyone Flies Anymore

The movie Flight is good. It’s very good. But it doesn’t succeed in achieving the level of brilliance one expects with names like Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington attached. There are moments in the film that accomplish feats of cinematic skill unmatched by any other movie you’ve seen this year. But there are also moments that while emotionally engaging, don’t quite affect us as deeply as they might if the film makers had pushed a little more. Scenes that are meant to pack a punch only slap playfully due in most cases to writing that lacks…well lacks. 

The film stars Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker, an airline pilot who manages to land a malfunctioning plane and consequently save most of the souls on board. It’s only after this spectacular rescue that the true drama of the film plays out as Whitaker is investigated for his suspected consumption of alcohol while on board. Due to these accusations, Whip is forced to confront the root causes of his addiction, how it has affected his life and how it could ruin his future.

 

 I acknowledge the film’s shortcomings, but I cannot say that I feel the same way about Washington’s performance at all. Stumbling, stammering, lying and denying, Whip is presented to us as a man riddled in flaws so deep that they’ve partly rotted out his humanity, leaving behind nothing more than a swaggering cad. Still, we like him. We like him out of pity. He breaks our hearts because he wants to change, but can’t. He keeps getting dragged away from that possibility by his demons. To watch him sink deeper and deeper into the hole dug by his addiction is like watching a character in a horror movie walk down a darkly lit corridor, only without irony and with an increased sense of dread. We become like every other person in Whip’s life constantly torn between admiration for his skill and horror at his behavior. The ability to pull us in and marry our emotions completely with the destiny of the character is a feat of the filmmakers yes, but the credit is due to Washington’s frank and authentic performance. 

Washington’s performance and the first 30 minutes of the film are what make it a worthy contender for the Best Picture Oscar. In the first 30 minutes the most incredible scene featuring the plane malfunctioning and finally crashing unfolds and I guarantee it will leave you speechless. Zemeckis orchestrates this spectacular sequence with the precision of a particularly enthralling Hitchcockian thriller . You’re emotional state is ravaged. Part of you wants it to end immediately, and part of you wants it to go on and on for hours. Maybe that was the problem with the rest of the film: the opening was so amazing that the rest couldn’t possibly live up to it. 

The truth is that it could have lived up to it if the words and actions of the supporting characters had some depth to them. But as it is, no one else is endowed with the dimension and layers of Whip. It comes to the point where characters seem expendable and interchangeable. We wonder why this person is here and what good is what they say. No one acts with individual intention, but rather in reaction to Whip’s erratic behavior. As a result, the film does not have the weight that it should.

But as a study of addiction, the film works well. In Whip’s journey we watch the extremes of irrational need and it burns with brutal honesty. For this reason especially, this film is worth watching.

Smash: Didn't this show used to be way better?

So Smash, a show about two young women trying to achieve their Broadway dreams amidst all kinds of drama, returned for its new season last night. This show endured a huge overhaul by the show’s producers because viewer response to the first season was less than stellar. Apparently the show was campy with a Capital C to most people, but I liked the first season. 

The original music was fun, beautifully arranged, and encompassed the glamour and magic of old Broadway show tunes. The covers were instantly downloadable and Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty have AMAZING voices. The acting and plots were an over the top, but it was fun to watch. I liked how there was always a new emotional challenge for the actors. 

According to EW, the producers fired the show’s conceptual creator and show runner and hired the guy from Gossip Girl to replace her. Really? You want to stay away from camp and corniness and you bring in the guy who wrote about Park Avenue princesses and the ridiculously over–the-top “problems” that tragically befall them? But I was still excited to see the premiere. The opening number was FABULOUS. Katherine McpHEE IS SO LUMINOUS as Marilyn in the show’s first number. She’s beautiful and so is the song she sings. It really brought the season off to a great start and promised the glamour and beauty that we all want from the show. That was the high point, but it did not stay there. From there the show immediately delivers the camp that they wanted to avoid, but without the heart that made last season watchable.

 

The script is awful. Everyone’s words are hollow: “On Broadway, everyone will want to bring you down, but if the work is good, they won’t be able to” is said by new addition Jennifer Hudson’s character, Broadway star, Veronica Moore, but as much as the Oscar winner tries to inject her soulful realness into the words, they sound really bland and typical. 

And then later a lunch meeting ends with this sentence being texted to someone: “Let’s move forward with the plan.” Seriously? The show undergoes a million dollar overhaul and the best you can come up with is “Let’s move forward with the plan?” That’s no improvement, it’s a serious downgrade. 

And the worse possible development: the sleazy, slimy, grimy, harass-y director of the Marilyn show, Derek, ends up with Karen, our squeaky queen heroine? I’ve heard of redemption, but that’s ridiculous. That’s like Bambi ending up with the hunter in the end!  

The songs are great though. This new guy, Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan), has an incredible voice. The songs he sings are supposed to be groundbreaking in their originality, but they’re actually pretty basic late 80s affairs. Still stirring emotionally though. He can sing, really beautifully, and he’s cute. He’s a far better option for Karen than greasy Derek. 

And the premiere was two hours? Why? Just to jam pack every plot twist and jump-the-shark moment into two hours? Two hours with all of this drama is just exhausting. Don’t be so desperate Smash!