Film Review: Flightplan

Director: Robert Schwentke

A tense thriller which is based around a missing child inside an aeroplane where it is seemingly impossible for somebody to go missing. Released in 2005, it was co-written by Billy Ray who also worked on films like Shattered Glass before being a screenwriter for hugely successful films like The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips. It is loosely based on the 1938 movie The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants called for an official boycott of the film, which they say depicts flight attendants as rude, uncaring and indifferent (truly proving they have nothing better to do with their time).

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is flying back to America from Germany after her husband has died, she leaves with her daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston). On the large luxurious plane they settled down for the journey and then find some free seats at the back so they both fall asleep, when Kyle wakes up she realises that Julia is gone and can't find her as she searches the cabin. She informs the flight crew who fetch the captain but she still cannot be found and is now certain there is a conspiracy to kidnap her daughter.

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) and Captain Marcus Rich (Sean Bean)

The initial idea is an intriguing one, how can Kyle's daughter disappear when she was clearly on board with her when the plane took off. It's impossible for her to have left the plane so what has happened? The film plays with different ideas of what has really happened and for a while it is a truly engrossing thriller. But as it progresses it struggles to stretch this thin plot over the running time required for a feature film and then produces a highly disappointing final act where we see what is truly happening. Jodie Foster becomes very irritating as the film progresses and has proven herself to be a better actress than this whilst Peter Sarsgaard is impressive in the sort of role he is renowned for.

1.5/4 Promising plot nosedives from the half way point