Flightplan
(Warning: spoiler ahead)
When Jodie Foster's latest film Flightplan first appeared, some in the blogosphere were concerned about the idea of a major film, post 9/11, set aboard an airplane, in which the bad guy turns out to be an air marshal, and in which there is a conspicuous cameo for an Arab, falsely accused of wrongdoing, who gets to show at the end of the movie what a nice guy he really is.
If I was looking for a Hollywood liberal 9/11 whitewash, I didn't find it in Flightplan, which is a good, solid thriller, with roots in the best of these films, notably Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Despite Hollywood's liberal idiocies, I would defend their right to make, say, a film in which an Arabic man is falsely accused of a terrorist plot: The Wrong Man, with Art Malik instead of Henry Fonda. Yes, I know Art's Indian, but, damn he was good as an Arab terrorist in True Lies. (Interesting to reflect, too, that Hitchcock was not a liberal: The Wrong Man proceeded not from some weepy liberal breast-beating about injustice, but from a much deeper Catholic wellspring of ideas about guilt and innocence. It's not one of Hitch's best, but imagine what an unbearable film it would have been if made by Stanley Kramer.)
But political considerations pale against the chance to watch another performance by Jodie Foster. She's that rare thing in Hollywood today - a female 'star' who is also a genuinely interesting actress, and for whose already long career one can see no imminent end. I'd like to say that my admiration for her grows with each film, but in fact I don't think it will ever pass the highwater mark of Robert Zemeckis' Contact. Zemeckis knew exactly what he was doing with her: everything that this film wants to say about the alien, the beyond, the sublime, it says with Jodie Foster's face. Probably the best use of an actor's face since the famous last shot of Garbo in Queen Christina.
As many have already observed, Flightplan is Panic Room at 30,000 feet. The thematic concerns, claustrophobic spaces, and physical action (especially that elbow-swinging run Jodie does when she periodically bursts into action) are very similar in both films. She definitely needs to do some different roles - one wonders if her Leni Riefenstahl project will ever get up, and the synopsis of her second proposed directorial project Sugarland sounds rather dire:
"A recent law school graduate teams with an experienced public-interest attorney to take on a sugar baron on behalf of exploited migrant workers." (IMDB)
Can't wait.
Apart from its merits as a suspense thriller, Flightplan deserves praise for its attention to detail: the casting and performances of the actresses who play the stewardesses is faultless. The physical types are perfect - they get the walk absolutely right, and that unmistakable air of combined hostility, indifference and disdain. Also, the casting of extras is notably good. Very often, directors who would take great pains to get a set or a costume right are surprisingly indifferent to the casting and direction of extras. Nobody in this film strikes a false note - with the possible exception of Peter Sarsgaard as the flight marshal. Perhaps the rationale is that, in real life, air marshals aren't meant to look like air marshals.
As a final comment, for anyone who values the art of screenwriting, Flightplan has a wonderful moment in which a crucial fact is revealed to Jodie, and to the audience, in a way that combines absolute plausibility with a deeply poetic, moving, level of symbolism. I dare not break its spell by describing it.
(Warning: spoiler ahead)
When Jodie Foster's latest film Flightplan first appeared, some in the blogosphere were concerned about the idea of a major film, post 9/11, set aboard an airplane, in which the bad guy turns out to be an air marshal, and in which there is a conspicuous cameo for an Arab, falsely accused of wrongdoing, who gets to show at the end of the movie what a nice guy he really is.
If I was looking for a Hollywood liberal 9/11 whitewash, I didn't find it in Flightplan, which is a good, solid thriller, with roots in the best of these films, notably Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. Despite Hollywood's liberal idiocies, I would defend their right to make, say, a film in which an Arabic man is falsely accused of a terrorist plot: The Wrong Man, with Art Malik instead of Henry Fonda. Yes, I know Art's Indian, but, damn he was good as an Arab terrorist in True Lies. (Interesting to reflect, too, that Hitchcock was not a liberal: The Wrong Man proceeded not from some weepy liberal breast-beating about injustice, but from a much deeper Catholic wellspring of ideas about guilt and innocence. It's not one of Hitch's best, but imagine what an unbearable film it would have been if made by Stanley Kramer.)
But political considerations pale against the chance to watch another performance by Jodie Foster. She's that rare thing in Hollywood today - a female 'star' who is also a genuinely interesting actress, and for whose already long career one can see no imminent end. I'd like to say that my admiration for her grows with each film, but in fact I don't think it will ever pass the highwater mark of Robert Zemeckis' Contact. Zemeckis knew exactly what he was doing with her: everything that this film wants to say about the alien, the beyond, the sublime, it says with Jodie Foster's face. Probably the best use of an actor's face since the famous last shot of Garbo in Queen Christina.
As many have already observed, Flightplan is Panic Room at 30,000 feet. The thematic concerns, claustrophobic spaces, and physical action (especially that elbow-swinging run Jodie does when she periodically bursts into action) are very similar in both films. She definitely needs to do some different roles - one wonders if her Leni Riefenstahl project will ever get up, and the synopsis of her second proposed directorial project Sugarland sounds rather dire:
"A recent law school graduate teams with an experienced public-interest attorney to take on a sugar baron on behalf of exploited migrant workers." (IMDB)
Can't wait.
Apart from its merits as a suspense thriller, Flightplan deserves praise for its attention to detail: the casting and performances of the actresses who play the stewardesses is faultless. The physical types are perfect - they get the walk absolutely right, and that unmistakable air of combined hostility, indifference and disdain. Also, the casting of extras is notably good. Very often, directors who would take great pains to get a set or a costume right are surprisingly indifferent to the casting and direction of extras. Nobody in this film strikes a false note - with the possible exception of Peter Sarsgaard as the flight marshal. Perhaps the rationale is that, in real life, air marshals aren't meant to look like air marshals.
As a final comment, for anyone who values the art of screenwriting, Flightplan has a wonderful moment in which a crucial fact is revealed to Jodie, and to the audience, in a way that combines absolute plausibility with a deeply poetic, moving, level of symbolism. I dare not break its spell by describing it.
posted by cuckoo at
9:10 AM
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