Flightplan [DVD] [2006]

If you can forgive plot holes that you could drive the airliner of your choice through the middle of, then Flightplan is an effective, pacey Hollywood thriller, that somehow manages to hold everything together in spite of its challenging plausibility.

Credit for that must go to its lead actress. In the hands of a lesser talent, this is just the kind of movie that could descend into obscurity. But Jodie Foster, as always, injects her character with a believability and a drive that’s hard to resist, and here is no different.

The plot sees her flying her late husband’s body back home on a commercial flight. As her and her six year old daughter settle down, Foster soon falls asleep, awaking to find no sign of her child, and no one who can even remember her being on the flight. Has someone taken her? Is it all in Foster’s mind? These are the questions the film circles, and for a good hour of its running time, it’s compelling Hollywood-style entertainment.

The cracks soon appear when you examine the film more closely though, and it’s as if Flightplan is just as aware of that as everyone else. The decision therefore to keep the film moving at a good pace is a wise one, leaving the viewer free to switch their brain off and just enjoy the ride, without querying too much the glabrous script that rarely makes as good use of the premise as you’d hope.

Yet the film still works. It may, after the credits have rolled, have failed to live up to its potential, and there’s a good hour of dissection waiting to happen afterwards. Yet, crucially, there’s also the best part of a couple of hours of good, solid entertainment in it for you too.--Jon Foster

Jodie Foster plays Kyle Pratt, a recently widowed aircraft designer who must fly her and her daughter back from Berlin to America in order to bury her late husband. When she awakes from a much-needed nap, she realises to her horror that her six-year-old daughter Julia is missing. Kyle initially thinks her daughter may have wandered off, but mild panic turns to full-scale hysteria when after an exhaustive search Julia is nowhere to be found on the plane. More worryingly, it emerges that Julia was never even registered as a passenger on the flight. With no one on board confirming that they had seen her, the audience is left guessing as to whether this is all a figment of Kyle's strained state of mind. Tense action follows as Kyle must rely on her own instincts to save herself and find her daughter.

• In-Flight Movie - The Making of Flightplan: - Security Checkpoint: Story of a Thriller - Captains Greeting: Meeting the Director - Passenger Manifest: Casting the Film - Connecting Flights: Post Production - Emergency Landing: Visual Effects • Cabin Pressure: Designing The Aalto E-474 • Easter Eggs