Denzel Washington soars anew in Flight, 2012 Paramount

Wikipedia, in its page 'Aviation Accidents' reports that according to Aircarft Crashes Records Office (ACRO), a non-government organization based in Geneva,  2,179 aeronautical incidents occurred between 1999 and 2011 claiming 17,928 fatalities worldwide. There is an uptrend in annual incidents but some interpret this as a function of the exponential increase in flights. Planecrashinfo.com published the information that the odds of an air mishap is 1 to 29 million. That impresses little comfort. Did you know pilots caused 50% of the accidents while 22% are attributed to mechanical failures?
Air disasters are so delicate materials that you don't see them often as movie subjects. It's a treat when a fine treatment do come along.
Flight narrates a fictional tale of an aeronautical disaster commanded by a druggie on a personal tailspin and the aftermath filled with tortured realization. It is an emotional drama that jolts and surprises, fronted by a thrilling crash sequence, a most satisfying fare for mature audiences.
After a heroic maneuver out of a turbulence, Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington, Oscar Best Actor, Training Day, 2001 Warner Bros.) takes a 'vodka nap'  rudely awakened by the convulsing aircraft on a dead stick. The craft rapidly dives to a deadly pitch until Whip turns the plane upside down, crashes it in a field in an outcome that prevented a bigger death toll. Only 6 are dead of 102 in the manifest. Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle, Oscar best actor nominee for Hotel Rwanda 2004 United Artists), lawyer for the Union and Whip, explains that several pilots simulated the crash and ended up killing everybody on board.
Amidst a media frenzy on the heroic daredevil maneuver, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducts its investigation on the circumstances surrounding the incident. Whip presents a cocky version of his participation but deep inside realizes his liability once his problem with substance abuse is explored. Assisted by his dope dispensing crony Harlin Mays (John Goodman,King Ralph 1991 Universal Pictures), Whip hies off to his father's farmhouse to avoid media scrutiny and resolves to rehabilitate himself.
Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greewood, Nowhereman 1995-6 touchtone TV) and Hugh Lang inform Whip that a toxicology report indicated a high level of alcohol and heroine found in his blood and this was going to be investigated. While the duo kept assuring Whip that Lang can sideline and kill the report, it falls short of comfort and Whip slides back into an alcohol and substance binge. Seeking emotional rescue, Whip decides to look up Nicole Maggen (Kelly Reilly, Lake Eden 2008 Weinstein Company) an overdose victim with which he shared a stairwell for a smoke in a hospital. He found her being harassed by her landlord and decides to bring her to the farmhouse. Whip and Nicole develops a relationship that falls apart precipitated by Whip's binges. She decides to leave because of her resolve to reform while he just wants to escape his situation. Again alone, Whip attempts to reconnect with his estrange family, however he is rebuked by his ex-wife and son.
A day before the NTSB hearing, Anderson and Lang corals Whip in a hotel which room is barren of alcohol to prevent him from jeopardizing his position. However, Whip is awakened by a loose door leading to a connecting suit where he discovers an alcohol treasure fridge. He fights with himself in a tug of war for resolve.
In the morning, he is found by Anderson and Lang still in a lethargic stupor over the alcohol binge of the night before. Helpless Anderson and Lang enlist Mays who immediately comes to the emergency. Whip is up and about after a good snort. Everything is fine.
At the hearing, the discussion pointed to an aircraft maintenance failure leading to mechanical fatigue and off the toxicology report on Whip. However, upon raising the probability of one crew member being drunk on the job with three fully consumed miniature bottles of Vodka, Whip is driven by conscience to protect the image of lover and crew member Katerina (Nadine Velasquez, My Name is Earl 2006-9 NBC). He confesses to consuming the alcohol during the flight. The film ends with Whip in a correctional facility being visited by his son.
Flight received so much excellent reviews but failed to register in the Oscar radar. A climate of grit on-screen pervaded non-stop which should have been enough to put  it on the Oscar map. The movie kicks off with a prolonged shot of the breast of Nadine Velasquez against a bedside clock  in a hotel (7:14 in the bedside clock maybe unintended but that's a verse on Chronicles calling for repentance for evil ways). It then segues to the horrifying conditions leading to the crash. The crash aftermath showed the gritty struggle of the main character to recover a life falling apart. Everything culminates to the climactic NTSB hearing where Whip decides to own up.
Robert Zemeckis ( Oscar Best director-Forrest Gump 1994 Paramount) spreads the tension evenly in the main protagonist's search for redemption in a broad mosaic environment of pride, family, death, lovers, corporate politics, failure, success, friends as well as life deranging events in a story by John Gatin (writer Real Steel, 2011 Touchtone). The dialogue feels spontaneous while clearly conveying the arguments, the exchange of Whip and Lang in their first meeting as an example.  Why the picture and director got passed for the Oscars, who knows?
The camera work was great specially in the moments leading to the crash. The tilt while moving the camera up and down the isle of the plane puts the audience in the center of chaos, more acutely when the plane rolled up inverted and hung people upside down to helter shelter. Staging the crash it itself with CGI was effective.
However, truth to tell, I enjoyed the prolonged breast exposure of Nadine at the start more, really. Great work!Great body!
Denzel Washington, meantime, earned the nomination as best actor in the Oscar, which result is still pending. In the Golden Globe, Washington looses to Daniel Day Lewis' portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the movie with the eponymous title. Washington calibrates effectively the acting to show the conflicting, alternating emotions of hubris and despair without turning the character into a screaming wreck out for sympathy. Kelly Reilly portrays the frail but resolved reforming junkie who hooks up with Whip in the same mood of desperation. Her performance matches the quiet intensity of Washington particularly in the scene her character decides to leave but kept it to herself. James Badge Dale (Rubicon 2010 AMCTV) makes a marked appearance as the fast talking cancer patient with a cavalier life attitude in the smoking stairwell scene. Don Cheadle handled the exasperation of the character with a show of diminishing emotional investment. His eyes disconnect in a scene where before he turns and walks, he tells  Anderson to "Just get him to the church on time". Bruce Greenwood underplays to exact proportion the empathizing but confused colleague. Keeping emotion in check to guide, the character  is resolved to complete his task if not for Whip then for the union. John Goodman turns in another wonderful performance as a good natured dope dispensing druggie that earned him a Golden Globe but not an Oscar. Well in my book, he should have gotten a nomination for Argo(Warner Bros. 2012), Flight and Trouble with the Curve (Warner Bros. 2012).

After seeing this movie, I am not about to fly in the immediate future. But this movie definitely takes off.
It's a ten for me like Bo Derek. Go see it again.