Review of Flightplan (2005) by Steven V — 17 Jan 2009

Flightplan is a psychological thriller that takes place almost entirely on an air-born jumbo jet en route to New York, from Berlin. This movie has an interesting premise and oddly similar to Jodie Foster's previous movie, Panic Room, in which her maternal character is forced into a confined space with no outlet.

In keeping with most of Jodie Foster's performances, she plays a strong-willed, intelligent woman who overcomes difficult circumstances. As expected, Jodie Foster delivers and pulls the audience into the story.

Flightplan, while entertaining, remains among those psychological-thrill-rides that are only as successful as their audience is unsuccessful in knowing the truth during the course of the movie. To achieve this, the movie has to throw a slew of false leads and suspicious looking characters into early shots in order to have the audience questioning.

This movie has too many factors that had to conspire in favor of one person for the movies storyline to hold together. The real problem with Flightplan is that the more you think back, the more you become frustrated with how inconceivable the whole charade was, the more you become irritated with how often you were lead to wonder about something eventually irrelevant.

There are some movies that don't give you all the answers and pull you along on a suspenseful ride, and leave you feeling fulfilled when you finally figure everything out, and everything fits together.

Flightplan concludes, you know the culprit, and then you think back, and nothing fits together.