Flight Plan: an Entertaining Movie with Little Going for It

Flight Plan, brought to us by writer/director Robert Schwentke (Tattoo and The Family Jewels), is a nearly edge of your seat thriller that repeatedly misses the mark as an enticing film. While the cast includes at least one big name actor with much talent (Jodie Foster as Kyle) and many lesser known actors with great potential (Peter Sarsgaard as Carson, Kate Beahan as Stephanie) there is a certain something that continues to lack. The dialogue, plot line and sequences all have the foundations for a riveting thriller, but the combination of cast members can't seem to pull it together.

Early in the film we meet Kyle (Foster), an engineer leaving Germany for the US after her husband's death. She is traveling on a plane she designed with her 6 year old daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston). After sleeping on the plane, Kyle awakes to discover her daughter is missing. She immediately searches passenger sections of the plane, and, when unsuccessful, recruits the crew to assist in the search. The flight attendants are disbelieving, as Julia's name is found nowhere on the flight manifest, and her boarding pass has also disappeared. During all this, Carson, the Air Marshall, believes her and agrees to help her however he can, and within reason. Yet, despite the crew's efforts, her daughter remains missing. At this point, the Captain (Sean Bean), receives word that Julia had died with her father in Germany. This new information has the entire crew questioning Kyle's sanity. Kyle of left in the care of Carson, and a therapist (Greta Scacchi), who try to help her cope with her loss. Kyle, however, is not so easily dissuaded, and uses her memory of the plane's architecture to continue the hunt for her daughter.

Flight Plan was a well executed and delivered movie. Several scenes will leave the viewer scratching their head, while others, the search scenes in particular, are drawn out and quite dry. Foster was not the best choice the starring role, and the supporting actors didn't interact as naturally as they could have.

Don't let the negative review keep you from seeing it. It's a good night-in movie, with plenty of pauses (or dry spells) for breaks, an easily followed plot line, and plenty of fodder for movie talk.