"Flightplan," which opened this past weekend, stars Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard and Sean Bean.
It begins in a fog of mystery that keeps viewers enveloped in the action and wanting to know exactly what happens to Kyle Pratt's (Foster) daughter.
Foster's character just lost her husband in Berlin after he fell from a building and died, leaving Pratt and her 7-year-old daughter, Julia, alone in a foreign land. She was a jet engine propulsion designer and just so happens to be taking her daughter and her husband's body back to the United States on a plane she designed.
Once they board, there is very little action until the mother and daughter fall asleep. When Foster's character awakens, her daughter is missing. She comes across an air marshal, played by Peter Sarsgaard, who doesn't believe her.
In fact, no one on the plane believes her.
From here we spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out what happened. Is she crazy? Is the entire crew in on it? Did Martians abduct her for some nefarious reason?
All of these questions, except for maybe the last one (different movie) is what keeps us interested. It actually moves along at a rather brisk pace and never really lags. This has the making for tons of fun at the Cineplex. Then it comes to its conclusion.
I'm going to end the plot summary there and just tell you that the end completely destroys what had been built up as a decent mystery.
It is beyond preposterous.
You will be wishing it was the Martians. How the filmmakers came up with this ending and then convinced an A-lister like Jodie Foster to star, I'll never know.
There is nothing jaw-dropping about the finale unless you count the jaw-dropping in order to make a contorted face at the end credits.
It had a strong opening weekend, but I think we're going to see a big drop in its second weekend, especially with competition from films where Jessica Alba blows stuff up.
Morrison is a film major at The U of M.
