Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace
Flight Risk might be the first time a blacklisted director
has directed a film from the Black List. Mel Gibson's opinions about
a certain ethnic group have seen him understandably become persona non grata
in mainstream Hollywood in recent years. Gone are the days of Gibson
shooting epics like Braveheart, Apocalypto and The Passion of the Christ: now the best he can muster is a movie with three characters in a
plane.
Jared Rosenberg's script was on the famous "Black List" of
unproduced screenplays. The Black List is supposed to represent the best
unproduced scripts in Hollywood, but practically all of them turn out to be
stinkers when they eventually reach the screen. That's the case once again
with this inert thriller that barely gets off the ground and begins a long
descent within minutes of its opening.
Topher Grace plays Winston, a mob accountant hiding out from his
employers in remote Alaska when he's rumbled by Deputy US
Marshal Madelyn Harris (Michelle Dockery). To save his ass,
Winston agrees to turn state witness and testify against his boss in a trial
set to begin within days in Seattle. To get Winston to the trial on time, a
private plane is chartered, but the pilot, Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg), turns out to be a hitman hired to ensure Winston never makes it out of
Alaska.
Flight Risk's marketing has severely overstated Wahlberg's role in the proceedings.
His is the only face on the poster and the trailer creates the false
impression that the movie is an action-packed, claustrophobic game of cat
and mouse between his hitman and Dockery's Marshal. In reality Daryl spends
the bulk of the movie tied up, left to hurl insults and threats while
Madelyn and Winston try to figure out how to keep the plane in the air
without his help.
Flight Risk is essentially a low budget variation of the old
"the stewardess has to land the plane" disaster movie trope, with Madelyn
given instructions by an improbably flirty pilot (Maaz Ali), over the
radio. As Madelyn speaks with various other characters, some of whom she's
unsure if she can trust, the movie begins to resemble films like
Locke, Buried and
The Guilty, in which the protagonist remains in a confined space while trying to
solve a problem by communicating with other parties over the phone. But
Flight Risk has none of the propulsive tension of those films:
there's a lot of flight but very little risk established. Gibson fails to
even give us an insert of a fuel tank gauge running low, so we're never in
any doubt that Madelyn is going to make it.
Madelyn is a classic case of a heroin written by a male screenwriter as
essentially a male hero with a woman's name. The film fails to address the
perilous nature of a woman stuck in a plane with two men who would both
benefit from her death. Daryl's sexualised threats carry little weight given
how he's immobilised, and the movie establishes far too early that Winston
is on her side. Daryl and Winston represent the two scariest types of men a
woman can find herself around - a psycho and a nerd - but it never
acknowledges the threat of the latter. Grace is an actor who gives the
impression that his nice guy persona masks a sinister side, and Gibson and
Rosenberg waste the opportunity to explore it here.
Flight Risk will likely be remembered for Wahlberg's
laughable decision to shave his head while leaving the sides untouched. It
looks less convincing than if he had worn a bald cap, as it's clear that
he's not actually bald, with fresh stubble all too visible. The laughs that
rang out upon the initial reveal of Wahlberg's pate represented the only
time my audience reacted to this dull affair. Dockery's Marshal has a past
that saw her pay the professional price for making a mistake, and escorting
Winston represents a chance to restore her reputation. You can't help but
wonder if Gibson identified with this aspect of the script, but
Flight Risk isn't going to do much to rehabilitate him in the
eyes of Hollywood.
Flight Risk is in UK/ROI cinemas
from January 24th.
