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Denzel Washington stars in this Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Back to the Future) film about an airplane pilot who makes a ‘miracle landing’ after a mid-air collision, saving over a hundred lives from almost certain death. But here’s the rub: he’s an alcoholic, and the lawyers are out to frame him for wrong-doing, armed with a toxicology report and three empty bottles of vodka recovered from the crash. Will Washington’s character, who also snorts cocaine and hangs out a heroine junky, come clean and admit his alcoholism to the judge and jury, or will he take advantage of the system and be the hero the media makes him out to be?

First, let’s all praise the baby Jesus that Robert Zemeckis is making live-action, grown-up movies again. (Enough of that hideous computer-animated shit, Bob!) It’s also refreshing to see Zemeckis tackle a drama with little special effects wizardry. The man’s just telling a simple story here, and that’s cool. Washington is reliably good and the movie had me pretty engaged up until the mid-point. I liked that there was a flawed character doing good things, but possibly risking consequences for his foibles. As long as the movie remained neutral in the proceedings, it was interesting. But in the second half, Flight turns more into a moral dilemma that climaxes on the witness stand. And I just feel like we’ve seen that sort of thing plenty of times already.

Bruce Greenwood, Don Cheadle, Tamara Tunie, Kelly Reilly, Melissa Leo, and John Goodman all put in good supporting turns.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Original Screenplay (John Gatins)