3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Headlined by the addition of several veteran actors and famous director Mel Gibson, “Flight Risk” released Jan. 24 with the intention of finding great success in an otherwise quiet month of films. It did not. The film barely succeeded, and although it showed certain traits of a great movie, Gibson does not do enough to make “Flight Risk” a thriller worth remembering.
Set in the modern day, a former mafia accountant Winston (Topher Grace) is taken into custody by a U.S. Marshall — Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) — in order to testify against the organized crime ring he was essential in operating. Having no safe way to make it to Anchorage from northern Alaska by ground, Madolyn has no choice but to turn to a local pilot and his plane to get Winston to trial.
The performances for this film settle in as the core of this project, led by Mark Wahlberg as the murderous pilot with no name. Originally portraying a down to earth pilot in order to trick Winston and Madolyn of his intentions, his cover is blown to be a murderous psychopath who tortures his victims for fun. Wahlberg’s ability to flip from carefree cargo pilot to maniac provides the movie with some versatile talent and good drama. Once revealed, Wahlberg is a menace that uses his knowledge of Winston and Madolyn to manipulate and play with them, his facial expressions and unhinged movement, helping him play the part of a serial killer to a tee.
Grace and Dockery provide excellent performances as well. With every bit of information the pilot delivers, more is revealed about both of the heroes in dark secrets about their pasts. Dockery portrays a scarred, shameful officer afraid of the past and grateful to have the chance to do the job she loves. The raw emotion on her face is palpable in every scene, constantly trying to hold it together amid the nightmare scenarios she has endured, past and present.
Grace’s fragile composure gives the audience a character to sympathize with, and his journey of self-reflection and desire to become a hero against all odds all comes through in the actor’s presentation.
The most surprising aspect of the film is certainly the cinematography, given how limited the sets are. With wide establishing shots of the Alaskan landscape and a myriad of close-up shots to dictate character expression, the camera work does more with less. Despite the plane being the only set piece for nearly the entire film, it never gets to the point where it feels boring to watch.
Antônio Pinto, the composer for the film, does a fantastic job establishing a foreboding tone. Everytime Wahlberg’s character is delivering a monologue, Pinto accompanies the character with a haunting cello and piano backtrack to give the maniacal hitman that extra bit of aura surrounding him. The score helps the audience feel a sense of disgust and horror as the pilot reveals more and more information about Madolyn and Winston.
Unfortunately for these fantastic actors and their surrounding audio/visual aid, this film cannot hide the fact that its story is simply too uninteresting to captivate and excite the viewer. Individual performances do the brunt of the work when trying to elevate an otherwise generic thriller-horror script that does not try to innovate in any sense of the imagination.
The supporting cast outside of the main trio are bland caricatures and their inclusion serves to further a subplot about an information mole that feels rushed and underdeveloped. This story thread is simply dropped halfway through the film and resolved in no time at all, leaving the audience uninterested at every attempt to fill the runtime with additional content. Without the help of the main cast, the film feels devoid of any interesting story to begin with.
The action set pieces toward the end of the film serve no purpose other than to stimulate the audience one last time. The effects are poorly done and their direction is almost comical, placing the characters into situations where they should not survive. Plot armor inevitably saves the day, leaving the viewer to question the inclusion of the action at all.
With an excellent cast, great cinematography and an inspired score, “Flight Risk” has some worthy elements to warrant its existence. Despite the lack of a unique direction in both the screenplay and the action, the film does enough to prevent its own crash-and-burn scenario.
