Flightplan

It's a rainy, dreary day here in Chicago, so I thought it would be fitting to review a movie I saw recently that I found pretty damn depressing: Flightplan.

First off, why did they have to spell "Flightplan" incorrectly? It is supposed to be written as two words, and since I take that kind of stuff seriously, I was already put off by the movie before it even began. (And for the record, neither my husband nor I can figure out how it got to the top of our Netflix queue... we both deny ever adding it. Someone's hacked into our queue and is messing with us!!!)

Although I was able to brush aside my grouchiness over the misspelled title and keep hope alive that the movie might actually turn out to be decent, my husband settled in to watch it with a bad attitude from the get-go: "How can a kid get lost on a plane? This is going to be LAME!!!"

Yes, that's the premise of the movie. Jodie Foster plays a woman who designs jet engines and is therefore extremely familiar with the various layouts of huge commercial aircraft. She and her daughter board a flight from Berlin to New York, during which she falls asleep, and then wakes up three hours later to find her daughter missing. Passengers, the air marshal, flight attendants and even the captain all get involved in the mystery (Peter Sarsgaard and Erika Christensen are in two of the supporting roles), and they all come to the same conclusion: Jodie Foster is nuts and never even brought her daughter on board in the first place. Who to believe? What in the heck is going on?

There's a little bit more to the story than that, but I'll leave those details as a surprise in case you do want to rent this one. My husband called some of the twists right away, but I (as always) didn't see them coming. One thing I was really confused about was how Boromir could be the pilot of the plane... it just wasn't right to see him in a present-day setting... I didn't like it. Go back to Middle Earth!

So I guess by now you probably think that I didn't like this movie, and that's not necessarily the case. It kept me guessing and was definitely fast-paced, but it's not a "happy" story. And it's not like I only enjoy uplifting or comical movies... but this one, for whatever reason, just struck a hollow chord with me.

But if you like mysteries, or if you enjoyed the similarly-themed Jodie-starring film, Panic Room, you may find Flightplan to be OK. However, if you have a fear of losing your kid on a plane, then seriously... never, ever see this movie!

It is wrong that I was hoping that in the search for the little girl, we frequent travelers would get some insight into where they stash extra water bottles and snacks? Alas, no such luck.

- e